BUREAU OF CROP ESTIMATES. 299 



porters, and (3) to establish in working order an efficient system of 

 fruit-crop estimates. The office work in Washington was placed in 

 charge of an experienced statistical clerk, and further clerical help 

 was given from time to time by other branches of the bureau. 



At the end of the fiscal year (June 30, 1917), two crop reports 

 had been made, and the county su-rveys had covered about 100 

 counties. 



The fruit-crop work of the 1917 season is to be confined to apples, 

 and as soon as the apple estimating is well organized other fruits 

 will be included. The crop included in this work had an average 

 farm value in 1910-1914 of over $200,000,000, and in 1916 the farm 

 value of three of these crops (apples, peaches, and pears) exceeded 

 $237,000,000. 



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, and sugar cane; in July for corn, 

 rice, timothy hay, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cotton, flaxseed, sorghum, 

 and tobacco; in August for buckwheat, hay (tame hay, wild hay, 

 and total) ; in September for clover seed; and in December for rye 

 and winter wheat. Acreage remaining after abandomnent was esti- 

 mated for winter wheat and rye in May and for cotton in December. 



Monthly during the croj) 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, rye, wheat (spring and 

 winter), forage, including alfalfa hay, alfalfa for seed, bluegrass 

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

 hay, and total), kafirs, meadow^s, millet, pasture, and timothy; fruits, 

 including apples, apricots, blackberries, and raspberries, cantaloupes, 

 cherries, cranberries, figs, grapefruit, grapes, lemons, limes, olives, 

 oranges, peaches, pears, pineapples, plums, prunes, and watermelons ; 

 vegetables, including lima beans, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, onions, 

 potatoes, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes; miscellaneous, including al- 

 monds, broom corn, cotton, flaxseed, hemp, hops,' peanuts, percentage 

 of planting done, percentage of plowing done, sorghum cane, sugar 

 beets, sugar cane, tobacco, English walnuts, and wool. 



Yield per acre was estimated in August for clover- hay ; in Sep- 

 tember for alfalfa and timothy hay; in October for alfalfa seed, 

 cabbage, onions, broom corn, hemp, and hops; in November for clover 

 seed, kafirs, cranberries, peanuts, and sorghum sirup ; and in Decem- 

 ber for all principal crops for which acreage estimates were made. 

 During the growing season the condition reports, expressed as a per- 

 centage of normal ror all crops for which acreage is estimated, were 

 interpreted in yield per acre as a forecast of production. 



The percentage of a full crop produced was estimated in April for 

 celery m California ; in May for caulifloAver in California ; in August 

 for clover hay, apricots (California), blackberries and raspberries, 

 cherries (California), pineapples (Florida) ; in September for alfalfa 

 hay, bluegrass seed, timothy hay, cantaloupes, peaches, plums (Call- 



