644 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



During tlie fiscal 3'ear just closed it has been possible to have each 

 agent visited, his work inspected, and needed instructions given him at 

 least once and a part of them twice, with resulting benefit to the work. 



In addition to liis work in the field, the assistant statistician has 

 been engaged in general administrative work in the bureau, in coop- 

 erating with the department's committee on economy and efliciency, 

 and in the preparation of a manual of instructions for the guidance of 

 the bureau's army of voluntary crop correspondents, lie has also 

 revised and amplified the bureau's instructions to special field agents 

 and State statistical agents, embodying full and detailed directions 

 regarding the recently inaugurated system of weighting, designated 

 to determine the relative influence upon State averages of conditions 

 existing in the separate agi'icultural districts of each State. 



This new system of weighting, with improved and simplified 

 methods of editing and computing the results of their investigations 

 and inquiries, is placing the entire field service upon a more satis- 

 factory and scientific basis. 



The State statistical agent's unit for weighting purposes has hith- 

 erto been the county. This unit is to be abandoned and each State 

 divided into districts, usually embracing several counties having 

 similar soil, climate, products, etc. 



This change with other improvements will ehminate much of the 

 purely clerical labor formerly devolving upon the State statistical 

 agent during the preparation of his estimates and give him more 

 time to consider ana render due weight to the different factors 

 involved, thus insuring greater accuracy in his final conclusions. 



The same system will be extended to the work of all special field 

 agents, its practicability and value in their work having been already 

 fully demonstrated, thus placing the work of the entire field service 

 upon a uniform basis, a most important consideration in statistical 

 work. 



The census figures on acreage and production, now rapidly becom- 

 ing available, vnW assist greatly in determining upon accurate weights 

 for States and districts, a matter of vital importance under the new 

 system. 



WORK OF THE OFFICE OF THE CHIEF CLERK 



The work of the office of the cliief clerk during the fiscal year ended 

 June 30, 1911, as in past years, related to the general supervision of 

 the work and personnel of the clerical force, messengers, and other 

 employees; maintenance of the bureau's financial and property 

 accounts; purchase, custody, and distribution of supphes; prepara- 

 tion of salary rolls and vouchers; administrative audit of expense 

 accounts; copy duplicating work; clispatch of outgoing mail, and cor- 

 respondence concerning the foregoing. This work was kept uniformly 

 up to date. 



During the year several improvements were eflPected which have 

 promoted the efliciency of the bureau as a whole, among which may 

 De mentioned: 



Extensive alterations in the interior office arrangements, affording 

 additional space for the Divisions of Domestic Crop Reports and of 

 Research and Reference and enabling the latter to concentrate in its 

 library section all volumes, documents, and pamphlets in the custody 



