406 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



reduction of more than 50 per cent in the travel allotments of the 

 field force. These measures, made necessary by the reduced appro- 

 priation, to<^ether with the rapid turnover of personnel due to in- 

 adequate salaries, greatly crippled the efficiency of the bureau and 

 impaired the value of the service. Further difficulties were encoun- 

 tered when, at the last session of Congress, the appropriation for 

 the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1920, was reduced about $53,000 

 and it became evident that it would be necessary to discontinue 

 special service for fruit, truck, potato, tobacco, rice, and cotton 

 crops — crops having an annual value in excess of 4i billion dollars. 

 As soon as it became known in the spring of 1920 that the appropria- 

 tion would be reduced the next fiscal j'^ear, the trained crop specialists 

 of the bureau resigned to accept higher salaries in private employ- 

 ment or in other branches of the service. It was therefore impracti- 

 cable to carr}^ out the bureau's program of rendering the same service 

 in the fiscal year ending June 20, 1920, with greatly reduced force 

 and funds, as was furnished in the previous year. 



WORK ACCOMPLISHED. 



ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE. 



The administrative force was kept fully occupied with routine 

 matters of administration, answering a growing correspondence, or- 

 dering and distributing supplies and stationery, accounting for 

 bureau finances, preparing numerous statements for the press as a 

 means of disseminating crop information, taking part in depart- 

 mental conferences, service on bureau, departmental, and inter- 

 departmental committees, and representing the bureau and the de- 

 partment at various public meetings of farmers and business men 

 to present and discuss the statistics of crop and live-stock produc- 

 tion. Early in the fiscal year the chief of bureau was designated as 

 the personal representative of the Secretary of Agriculture on the 

 Interdepartmental Committee of the Council of National Defense. 

 An increasing number of problems required consideration resulting 

 from the reduced appropriation and personnel of the bureau, the 

 inadequate salaries and large turnover of employees, the loss of 

 trained specialists and experienced employees, and the impracti- 

 cabilit}' of replacing them even with inexperienced men at the sal- 

 aries available, the inadequate travel funds, and the increasing public 

 demand for service.. 



The Multigraph and Duplicating Section turned out 0,483,561 

 pages of material in the form of statements, circulars, question- 

 naires, and schedules of various kinds. The bureau was greatly 

 handicapped by lack of adequate storage space for large (juantities 

 of stationery required, but it was found impracticable to secure the 

 additional space needed until after the close of the fiscal year. The 

 Mailing Section was equipped with a new automatic ccmveyor for 

 assembling and mailing crop report schedules and enclosures of 

 various kinds. 



The Crop Reporting Board, made up of administrative officials 

 and one or more State agricultural statisticians called into AVashing- 

 ton each month, prepared and issued the monthly crop reports on 

 the hour and minute fixed and announced the preceding December. 



