788 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



(lie statement that no such list has been published by this department. 

 On account of the popular interest in the subject, this division has 

 compiled lists of not only the re«:ular State and county fairs, but also 

 other fairs and exhibitions of the regular sort that are in any way 

 concerned with agriculture. 



The efforts of railroad companies to promote agriculture, espe- 

 cially by soliciting settlers to farm lands, by aiding in agricultural 

 education, and by making other special efforts not strictly to be 

 classed as transportation, were treated in a bulletin which went to 

 press about the close of the fiscal year. The aim of this under- 

 taking is to make, practically, a complete survey of the activities of 

 the railroad companies in the promotion of agriculture. 



IMuch work has been done during the year in ascertaining the 

 dates of planting and harvesting principal crops. In a bulletin 

 published during the year are embraced the dates of harvesting 

 corn, winter wheat, spring wheat, fall-sown oats, spring-sown oats, 

 barley, rye, buckwheat, flax, cotton, and tobacco. The collection and 

 tabulation of materials for another bulletin relating to the forage 

 crops was nearly completed. At the same time a third line of work, 

 the dates of planting and harvesting vegetable crops, has been in 

 hand. In the meantime a bulletin has been prepared to perform 

 the service of a key to find information in the series of bulletins 

 relating to seedtime and harvest in each county and small group of 

 counties. 



A system was established for the collection of annual statistics 

 of cane-sugar and sugar-cane production in the United States and 

 its insular possessions. Statistics of the campaign of 1911-12 for 

 most of Louisiana and Texas and of the campaigw of 1910-11 for 

 Hawaii and Porto Rico had been obtained by the close of the fiscal 

 year 1912. 



This division has compiled a series of tables covering the inter- 

 national trade of the world in principal agricultural products for a 

 period of time extending back to about 1900, the results of which have 

 been published annually in the Yearboolcs of this department. 

 There is a steady and frequent demand for the results of this com- 

 pilation; and, for the convenience of the department and of the pub- 

 lic, it has been deemed advisable to revise the tables heretofore pub- 

 lished and embrace them in a bulletin. The products for which 

 this work has been done are corn, wheat, wheat flour, cotton, tobacco, 

 rice, hops, sugar, tea, coffee, oil cake, oil-cake meal, rosin, spirits of 

 turpentine, India rubber, wood pulp, hides and sldns, butter, cheese, 

 and wool. 



An article was prepared for the Yearbook of 1911 on the reduc- 

 tion of waste in marketing fresh fruits and vegetables, as effected 

 by improved methods of distribution and by better transportation 

 facilities. An investigation into local variations in farm prices, as 

 shown in returns from individual counties, was begun, and con- 

 siderable work was done in the preparation of tables and maps. 



The regular annual publications prepared in this division in- 

 cluded the bulletin on exports of farm and forest products from the 

 United States ; the corresponding imports bulletin ; a statement in 

 the Crop Reporter giving shipments of apples on railroads of the 

 United States for the crop of 1911, and another statement showing 

 exports of durum wheat. Monthly receipts of eggs and poultry by 



