BUREAU OF CROP ESTIMATES. 417 



Bureau of Crop Estimates have made it inadvisable to attempt the 

 further extension of the plan until these deficiencies are remedied. 

 The items covered by the present cooperative inquiry are : 



Niiiiibers on IuiihI, iiKintlily, of cattle, sheep, aiul swine. 



Increases by hirtli and purchase. 



I>ecreases by sale, slaugliter, and death. 



Nunil)ers reniaininj?. 



Proportion of cows, calves, steers and bulls, and brood sows. 



Numbers of each class being prepared for market during ensuing 00 days. 



Probal)le date of marketing. 



Probable weight when marketed. 



Concernin<^ such matters, the large buying interests are in position 

 to inform themselves. The producer and the public generally are in 

 equal need of this information and it is the proper function of the 

 Government to furnish it. 



An ideal toward which the bureau is Avorking is the association of 

 all public agencies immediateh'' concerned in production and market- 

 ing of agricultural products into a closely cooperating group, to 

 participate in collecting information for the crop estimates, and in 

 utilizing the published results to the greatest advantage to producers 

 and the general public. 



In Idaho, cooperation is now established between the crop report- 

 ing service and the three other leading public agencies, namely, the 

 State commissioner of statistics, the State agricultural extension 

 service, and the farm bureau organizations. Each agency shares in 

 the work and expense and the estimates are issued jointly. The 

 agricultural extension service, through the county agricultural agent, 

 encourages the creation by the farm bureau of crop reporting com- 

 mittees in every county and community center. These report local 

 conditions to the agricultural statistician and receive, study, and dis- 

 seminate the State and county reports issued by him. The statis- 

 tician visits the different counties with the specialists of the agri- 

 cultural extension service to discuss this phase of the farming busi- 

 ness at the county and community meetings. Reports prepared 

 under such conditions of general participation by those most im- 

 mediately concerned are recognized as dependable, inspire confidence, 

 and are widely and profitably used. 



The annual collection by county assessing officers of basic agri- 

 cultural statistics, principally the acreage planted to each crop, under 

 State laws, is now practiced in 21 States and has been of great bene- 

 fit. The wide adoption of this plan resulted from the experience 

 during the war emergency, when States like Kansas, with such laws 

 in operation, were able to obtain definite data regarding county food 

 and feed production and supply, while States not having this means 

 of ascertaining tlie facts were suffering great anxiety, inconvenience, 

 and damage from tlie lack of such knowledge. 



Tiie crop reporting service has lent every assistance and encour- 

 agement to this movement, because data secured in this manner 

 furnish the most perfect check yet devised on the accuracy of its 

 estimates and permit of an annual revision to a sound basis of any 

 estimates that are affected by bias or error, instead of permitting in- 

 accuracies to accumulate in the annual forecasts during the 10 years 

 intervening between Federal censuses. It will also permit the issu- 



