306 ANNUAL REPOETS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



some offices decidedly unsanitary. Effective centralization of the 

 mechanical work of the bureau is impossible under present condi- 

 tions. 



Owing to the shortage of space the necessary stocks of paper, 

 envelopes, and printed forms are scattered among four widely 

 separated storage places. No one of these spaces, nor all of them 

 combined, is adequate for the purpose. They permit neither sufficient 

 storage space for the material necessary to our work nor efficiency 

 in the receiving, recording, and issuance of suppUes. It is hoped 

 that sufficient space will become available eventually, so that this 

 important branch of the work may be conducted with businessMke 

 efficiency and economy. 



The salary conditions in the Bureau of Crop Estimates will be made 

 the subject of recommendation in connection with the estimates for 

 the fiscal year 1920. They represent a factor in the difficulty ex 

 perienced by the Bureau of Crop Estimates since the entrance of the 

 United States into the war which should be mentioned at this time. 



It seems absolutely necessary in the interest of justice and efficiency 

 to ehminate the $900 grade for clerks. It is becoming more and more 

 difficult to fill vacancies in that grade, and in order to maintain a 

 working force we are obUged in most cases to offer entrance salaries 

 of from $1,000 to $1,200, payable from lump sums available to the 

 bureau. At the same time we have many experienced clerks at $900 

 to $1,000 on the statutory roll who are barred from promotion by the 

 lack of vacancies in the gi'ades above and from transfer to better 

 paying positions elsewhere by law. This creates a situation whereby 

 new and untrained clerks are paid higher salaries than many whose 

 experience renders them almost indispensable to the service, from 

 whom the newcomers receive much of their instruction, and whose 

 fixed salary becomes a relative demotion by reason of the increased 

 cost of hving. The new employees brought in at higher salaries hke- 

 wise become eligible for positions in the higher grades, for which the 

 older clerks in grades below can not be considered. The growing dis- 

 satisfaction and discontent produced by these conditions has had a 

 detrimental influence upon the work of the bureau. The work of the 

 truck-crop section has had to be curtailed because of the excessive 

 number of resignations. 



Adequate recognition has not been given to the service rendered by 

 the clerKs of the bureau. The bulk of the work of the Bureau of Crop 

 Estimates is of a sldUed clerical nature, requiring the highest abihty in 

 tabulating, computing, and statistical research. It is considered that 

 we have one of the best forces of computers to bo found, in proof of 

 which may be cited the fact that they have repeatedly outdistanced 

 the best adding-machine operators that could be broug;ht together 

 for competition wdth them. This point is especially significant when 

 it is" remembered that the average salary paid to statutory clerks 

 in the Bureau of Crop Estimates during the fiscal year 1917 was 

 only $1,192.47. 



The work on which the tabulating and computing clerks are 

 engaged is, at crop report time, of the most grueUng nature, and caUs 

 for sustained effort and intense concentration for a period of about 

 eight days, during which no account is taken of hohdays, and often- 

 times none of Sundays. This results from the fact that the law re- 

 quires crop reports to be issued at a specified time, and every other 



