BUREAU OF STATISTICS. 641 



a report to this bureau at the close of each month upon the topics 

 handled during each of the specific months to which his reports relate. 

 These State statistical agents are paid small salaries, and are only 

 required to devote so much of their time to the work as is necessary 

 for its proper performance. Their duties demand and they ought to 

 be paid larger compensation. 



The special field agents are assigned to two or more States each 

 and devote their entire time to the work. They travel within and 

 throughout their respective territories gathering information from all 

 dependable sources. They interview country merchants, implement 

 dealers, country bankers, farmers, and all others in touch with or 

 likely to have a knowledge of agricultural conditions. They are 

 required to visit the growing crops in the fields and make personal 

 inspection of their appearance and condition. Each of them has 

 correspondents located in various sections of his territory who report 

 to him at the close of each month from those parts of his district 

 which he is unable to visit. Based on the knowledge thus gained, 

 through personal inspection and interviews, and on the information 

 derived from their correspondents, the special field agents make 

 reports monthly to the bureau, similar to the reports made by the 

 State statistical agents. 



Reports both of the State statistical agents and special field agents 

 regarding what are known as "speculative" crops (corn, wheat, oats, 

 and cotton) are sent direct to tne Secretary of Agriculture and are 

 held by him in a locked receptacle until the morning of the day on 

 which each crop report is to be issued, when they are delivered to the 

 Statistician for tabulation and computation. 



During the past year the work of inspecting and instructing the 

 forces of State statistical agents and special field agents of the 

 bureau has been carried on vigorously, with great benefit to the 

 service. The assistant statistician of the bureau has been placed in 

 charge of tliis branch of the work; his report is given further on. 



In addition to the sources of information enumerated above, the 

 bureau has various lists of correspondents who report direct to 

 Washington each month, the information they furnish being along 

 lines identical with those covered by the State statistical agents and 

 the special field agents. These correspondents are located in every 

 agricultural county and township in the United States. They are 

 divided into various classes, the reports of each class being tabulated 

 separately and independently from every other class in the Division 

 of Domestic Crop Reports, a report of the work of which during the 

 past fiscal year follows. 



The methods and processes pursued in tabulating, computing, and 

 arriving at the figures covered by the monthly crop reports of the 

 bureau have been so fully described, in such great detail, both in 

 reports of this bureau heretofore made and in the public press, that 

 it is considered wholly unnecessary to set forth here what has been 

 so frequently and elaborately explained. 



An a])preciable portion of the time of employees of the bureau is 

 consumed in the preparation of replies to letters of inquiry regarding 

 agricultural statistics as well as other statistics bearmg upon agri- 

 culture. These inquiries are received from all classes of citizens, 

 including professors in agricultural colleges, State officials, depart- 



23105°— AGB 1911 41 



