/ 



314 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



which may be expected to reach commercial channels. Cooperative 

 relations nave been established with leading growers and shipping 

 associations in all parts of the country for the purpose of collecting 

 and disseminating this information, which is of vital importance to 

 producers and consumers of commercial fruits. During the fiscal year 

 1918 complete surveys were made of practically every important apple 

 and peach producing county in the United States. 



Apple and peach forecasts giving detailed estimates by States and 

 regions, together with complete comments upon the growing condi- 

 tions in all parts of the country, are now being issued monthly, and 

 it is planned to extend this service to other fruits. Approximately 

 10,000 voluntary apple reporters and 4,000 peach reporters are in- 

 cluded in the special lists of correspondents reporting to this office. 



The total crops included in this work had a value in 1917 of 

 $274,143,000. 



PUBLICATIONS. 



Twelve numbers of the Monthly Crop Report were issued during 

 the year, aggregating 136 quarto pages of estimates and agricultural 

 statistics. 



Two hundred and nine statistical tables were prepared for publi- 

 cation in the department Yearbook for 1917. 



The following Department Bulletins were published: No. 594, 

 Geo^aphy of Wheat Prices. No. 685, Honeybees and Honey Pro- 

 duction in the United States. 



Three articles were contributed to the Department Yearbook for 

 1917 on (1) Wool: Production, Foreign Trade, Supply, and Con- 

 sumption; (2) Hides and Skins: Production, Foreign Trade, Supply, 

 and Consumption; and (3) Sugar Supply of the United States. 



The following Department Bulletin was in press at the close of the 

 fiscal year 1918: Potatoes: Acreage, Production, Foreign Trade, Sup- 

 ply, and Consimiption, by George K. Holmes. 



MONTHLY CROP REPORTS. 



During the year the bureau issued estimates of the numbers, prices, 

 and value of different classes of live stock, losses from disease and 

 exposure, number of breeding sows, and the number of stock hogs 

 compared with last year. 



Acreage estimates were made in June for barley, oats, spring wheat, 

 alfalfa hay, clover hay; in July for corn, rice, kafirs, timothy hay, 

 potatoes, sweet potatoes, beans (dry), cotton, flaxseed, sorghum cane, 

 tobacco, broom corn, hops, peanuts; in August for buckwheat, hay, 

 (tame hay, wild hay, and total); in Septenaber for clover seed; and 

 in December for rye and winter wheat. Acreage remaining after 

 abandonment was estimated for winter wheat and rye in May and 

 for cotton in December. 



Monthly dming the crop season estimates were made of the con- 

 dition of the growing crops as a percentage of normal for cereals, 

 including barley, buckwheat, corn, oats, rice, rje, wheat (spring and 

 winter) ; forage, including alfalfa hay, alfaha lor seed, bluegrass for 

 seed, field beans, field peas, clover for hay, clover for seed, hay (tame 

 hay, wild hay, and total), kafirs, millet, pasture, and timothy hay; 



