416 ANNUAL. REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



close of the year, a serious recluction in the force of our trained fiehl 

 statisticians and the ahandonnient of important lines of work. 



The ])lan of proi)arino- and issuin": a sin<i:le crop report by Fed- 

 eral and State agencies jointly, instead of separate and often conflict- 

 in*; reports, first undertaken in Wisconsin in 1917, has proved so 

 advanta<j:eous in Qvery way that it has now been adopted in 21 

 States, havin<2; been extended this year to Maine, New Jersey, Ken- 

 tucky, and (\ilifornia. Under this plan the Bureau of Crop Esti- 

 mates throuo-h its resident agricultural statistician, furnishes the 

 technical supervision and direction of the work, the facilities and 

 personnel of both agencies are utilized, expenses are equitably 

 divided, and data are collected and published jointly. 



11ie resulting economies, the improvement in the reports, and their 

 enhanced value to the public are most gratifying. The plan will be 

 extended to other States in which suitable State agencies exist as 

 rapidly as the State oflicials are prepared to utilize its advantages, 

 which are in brief, avoidance of duplication of work and of diver- 

 gence of results, increased accuracy, enlarged service, fuller detail, 

 and greater public confidence, utilization, and benefit. 



Cooperation with agricultural extension departments under formal 

 agreement has been undertaken in a few States, and the possibilities 

 of service to farrners through this relation are so great that the 

 plan should be rapidly extended. 



Cooperation with county agents has been informal but active to 

 the degree permitted by their interest in crop estimates and agricul- 

 ural data and tlicir ability to assist. They help most by establishing 

 contact between the bureau and representative producers and farm 

 organizations, and by encouraging producers to report to the bureau 

 and make use of its reports. 



Cooperation recently undertaken W'ith farm bureau organizations, 

 State, county, and communit}^, offers great possibilities of service to 

 their members and other farmers. The farmer has suffered hereto- 

 fore from his failure to be acquainted with and to make proper use 

 of available agricultural data relating to his business even more than 

 from lack of such information. The farm bureau organization pro- 

 vides an agency through which the average farmer may become rea- 

 sonably familiar with this subject, encouraged to assist in the prepara- 

 tion of the Government estimates, and learn to profit by them directly, 

 instead of merely indirectly through their stabilizing influence on 

 market prices. 



The crop-reporting service is now cooperating under formal agree- 

 ments with the State farm bureau organizations in Ohio, Indiana, 

 Michigan, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas in the collection of live-stock 

 data. The project to furnish to the live-stock producing interests 

 statistics on live stock comparable with those now furnished for 

 staple crops failed last year to receiA^e the approval of Congress. 

 The need for this information is so great that the State farm bureau 

 organizations in Indiana, and subsequently those in the other States 

 named, provided the necessary funds and the cooperation of the or- 

 ganization and its membership in the collection, summarization, and 

 publication of such data. The farm bureau organizations in several 

 other States have requested the same service, but the limitations upon 

 the personnel, equipment, and travel funds of the State offices of the 



