REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 31 



constructive work of the Department, the Food Administration, the 

 State colleges of agriculture and experiment stations, and many State 

 and local organizations interested in maintaining, conserving, market- 

 ing, and distributing the food supply. 



For collecting original data the bureau has two main sources of 

 information — voluntary reporters and salaried field agents. The 

 voluntary force comprises 33,743 township reporters, one for each 

 agricultural township; 2,752 county reporters, who report monthly 

 or oftener on county-wide conditions, basing their estimates on per- 

 sonal observation, inquiry, and written reports of aids, of whom there 

 are about 5,500 ; 19 special lists, aggregating 137,000 names, who re- 

 port on particular products, such as live stock, cotton, wool, rice, 

 tobacco, potatoes, apples, peanuts, beans, and the like; and 20.160 

 field aids, including the best informed men in each State, who report 

 directly to the salaried field agents of the bureau. The total vol- 

 untary staff, therefore, numbers approximately 200,000, an average of 

 about 66 for each countj^ and 4 for each township. The reporters, as 

 a rule, are farmers. They serve without compensation, and are 

 selected and retained on the lists because of their knowledge of local 

 conditions, their public spirit, and their interest in the work. All 

 except county and field aids report directly to the bureau, and each 

 class of reports is tabulated and averaged separately for each crop 

 and State. 



The bureau has 42 salaried field agents, one stationed permanently 

 in each of the principal States or group of small States, and 11 crop 

 specialists. These employees are in the classified civil service. All 

 have had some practical experience in farming. Most of them are 

 graduates of agricultural colleges, and are trained in statistical 

 methods and crop estimating. They travel approximately three 

 weeks each month, the fourth week being required for tabulating and 

 summarizing the data collected. They send their reports directly to 

 the Department in special envelopes or telegraph them in code. These 

 are carefully safeguarded until the Crop Report is issuea. 



Additional information is secured from the Weather Bureau, the 

 Bureau of the Census, State tax assessors, thrashers, grain mills and 

 elevators, grain transportation lines, the principal live-stock mar- 

 kets, boards of trade and chambers of commerce, growers and 

 shippers' associations, and various private crop estimating agencies. 



