REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 17 



division of work between the two bureaus would be avoided. Fur- 

 thermore, crop and market reports could be published together, and 

 farmers and business men would have all the facts in one document. 

 The leased telegraph wires of the Bureau of Markets could be utilized 

 for transmitting crop information to Washington and for its prompt 

 dissemination. In some States, the branch offices of the two bureaus 

 could be brought together in the same quarters, and frequently 

 the same crop and live-stock specialists could serve both bureaus, 

 not only in this country but abroad. The operating forces of the two 

 organizations could be combined, as well as the duplicating and 

 mailing services and the staffs dealing with the purchase, custody, 

 distribution, and utilization of supplies. Specialists working along 

 statistical and economic lines in both bureaus could be brought to- 

 gether in a statistical research division to handle statistics of pro- 

 duction, consumption, imports and exports, surpluses and deficien- 

 cies, and farm and market prices of agricultural products for all 

 countries. In short, the proposed consolidation is in line with good 

 administration and efficiency in the public service and should be put 

 into effect without delay. 



CROP AND LIVE-STOCK REPORTING SERVICE. 



Xo problem can be satisfactorily considered, nor can any business 

 be permanently successful, without accurate and complete statistics. 

 Agriculture is the greatest business and the most fundamentally im- 

 portant industry in the United States, not only because of the amount 

 of capital invested, the number of people employed, and the new 

 wealth created annually, but because it supplies the Nation's food, 

 furnishes vast quantities of raw materials for the manufacture of 

 clothing and other necessary commodities, and contributes largely 

 to the export trade of the country. 



The Bureau of Crop Estimates, through more than half a century 

 of experience, has developed and perfected methods for ascertaining 

 and verifying many of the essential statistical facts of farm produc- 

 tion. It is operating during the present fiscal year under the serious 

 handicap of inadequate funds and reduced personnel, in the face of 

 a constantly increasing demand for the services it is designed to 

 render. Its appropriations were reduced by $53,000 at the last ses- 

 sion of the Congress, necessitating the discontinuance of the special 

 reporting service for cotton, tobacco, rice, potatoes, truck, and fruit 

 crops. Not only should this service be restored, but, as the demand 

 for agricultural statistics, especially in connection with marketing 

 problems, is steadily increasing, the time has come when an ex])an- 

 sion of the machinery of the bureau is urgently needed. The data 

 collected by the 1020 census will soon bo available as bases for crop 



