BUREAU OF CROP ESTIMATES. 415 



moment. Specialists should be appointed to reorganize and coordi- 

 nate the work and to prepare for publication summaries and analyses 

 of the data collected. 



TRUCK CROP REPORTING SERVICE DISCONTINUED. 



The truck crop reporting project was organized in 1914 with a 

 truck crop specalist in charge. The first reports related to the cab- 

 bage and onion crops of the North in the fall of 19i4 and were 

 followed by a general survey of the winter trucking regions from 

 Florida to California. Two assistant truck crop specialists were 

 provided in January, 1917, one being assigned to the Atlantic Coast 

 States and the other to the Pacific coast, including Idaho, Utah, 

 Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. A third assistant 

 crop specialist was assigned to the Mississippi Valley region in 1918. 

 Reports on acreage, condition, yield per acre, total production, and 

 prices to producers for about 30 truck croi:)S were prepared and pub- 

 lished in the Weekly Truck Crop News and the Monthly Crop Re- 

 porter. Special reports were made on canning crops, such as to- 

 matoes, corn, peas, snap beans, cucumbers for pickling, and cabbage 

 for kraut, upon which forecasts of the resulting pack were based. 

 Iveturns were secured from about 10,000 special truck crop reporters, 

 and supplementary information was obtained by travel, personal 

 inspection, and interviews with well-informed men in the trucking 

 regions by the specialists. 



On April 28, 1919, there were engaged upon the truck crop project 

 1 specialist, 4 assistant specialists, 9 permanent and 2 temporary 

 clerks, or a total force of 16 employees. By November, 1919, the 

 clerical force was reduced to 4, and about 45 different questionnaires 

 relating to truck crops had been mailed out and returned which could 

 not be tabulated. On May 1, 1920. the force was still further reduced 

 to 1 specialist and 1 clerk, and the Avork was practically discontinued 

 except for the mailing out of a few special schedules. A few reports 

 on acreage and condition continued to be made occasionally as time 

 Avas found to tabulate and summarize returns without interfering 

 with the reports on crops of major importance. The AVeekly Truck 

 Crop News service was discontinued in the winter of 1919-1920. 

 The annual value of truck crops in the United States is estimated 

 to be approximately $185,000,000. The total cost of maintaining the 

 truck crop reporting service for the fiscal year ended June 30. 1920. 

 was about $20,000, and the value of the service to truck growers alone 

 is estimated to have been nearly $2,000,000. 



FIELD SERVICE. 



The field work of the Bureau has shown notalile improvement dur- 

 ing recent years, and while expansion during the last year has not 

 been possible owing to reduced appropriations, yet marlced progress 

 was made in the development and improvement of the lines of work 

 already inaugurated, although the field statisticians were much ham- 

 pered in preparing their estimates by the limitations upon travel and 

 investigation in the field. The further reduction of the appropria- 

 tions for this work during the fiscal year 1921 forced, toward the 



