BUREAU OF CROP ESTIMATES. 409 



detailed study by investigators, these files being open to all persons 

 who care to use them. These records also furnish data for tables 

 and charts in the Monthly Crop Reporter, for the crop news and 

 recent statistics published in the semimonthly Foreign Crop and Live 

 Stock Keports, and for the world tables of crof)S and live stock in 

 the Department Yearbooks. Carbon and photostat copies of the 

 more useful tables are duplicated and kept on file for reference and 

 for distribution. 



The foreign project is limited to products on the farm and includes 

 acreage, production, and value of crops, also niunber and value of 

 live stock. In this work close cooperation is maintained w^ith the for- 

 eign marketing service of the Bureau of Markets, which frequently 

 consults the Division of Crop Records, and submits manuscript to 

 it for revision, especially when the subject refers to agricultural 

 production or number of live stock. 



These sources of foreign crop statistics are more plentiful than 

 they were in the fiscal year 1919. Countries which re23orted during 

 the Avar send a few more reports than previously, and official esti- 

 mates are received from central and southeastern Europe, including 

 Alsace-Lorraine, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Roumania, 

 and Greece. Also the International Institute of Agriculture reports 

 for more countries than it did during the war. 



The foreign crop project is under the direction of a specialist, who 

 was trained by an expert of many years' experience as foreign crop 

 specialist in this country and Europe. The specialist in charge com- 

 piles and edits material for the semimonthly reports, prepares re- 

 plies to letters, compiles special tables, and supervises the work on 

 this project. One regular assistant, who is an editorial clerk and 

 typist, and who translates several foreign languages, collects items 

 from foreign publications and summarizes them for the semi- 

 monthly reports. One statistical clerk was kept regularly on this 

 project during the fiscal year 1920, and one more has been assigned 

 for 1921. Typists and statistical clerks are assigned to this work 

 from time to time. 



The success of the foreign crop work depends much upon the ex- 

 perience and ability of the leader. To understand the foreign re- 

 ports properly and to interpret them for use, the specialist should 

 understand clearly the methods and limitations of each of the for- 

 eign crop reporting systems as well as the af^ricultural and related 

 economic conditions of those countries; thereiore, it is desirable that 

 one or more specialists be sent to foreign countries to study these 

 systems first-hand. Although the Bureau now receives practically 

 all the ofHcial crop reports directly from the respective governments 

 and advance quotations from some of them through the American 

 Consular Service and the International Institute of Ajjriculture, 

 nevertheless a foreign representative of the Bureau of Crop Esti- 

 mates would be able to supplement these official reports by comments 

 on crop conditions and work up useful and timely reports by per- 

 sonal inspection and interviews which would liardly be expected of a 

 consul or a commercial attache. To avoid delay some of these re- 

 ports should be sent by cable or radiograph, worked into press 

 notices in the Washington office, and given to the public not later 

 than the day following their receipt. 

 24435— AG B 1920 27 



