278 ANNUAL REPORTS OP DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE. 



The administrative office of the bureau, under the direct super- 

 vision of the chief of bureau, the assistant chief of bureau, and the 

 chief clerk, effected various improvements in methods of filing bureau 

 records, keeping account of bureau finances and property, and in 

 supervising and facilitating the work of the office and field force, 

 as well as directing activities of the bureau and looking after the 

 increased volume of correspondence. 



DIVISION OF CROP REPORTS. 



The work of the Division of Crop Reports, with the field force under 

 the direct supervision of Mr. S. A. Jones, chief of division, increased 

 nearly 60 per cent during the fiscal year 1916, the total number of 

 schedules and circulars handled by the division amounting approxi- 

 mately to 2,000,000. This increase was largely due to the rapid 

 growth of the truck crop investigations and to numerous special in- 

 quiries relating to minor crops and to particular phases of staple-crop 

 and live-stock production. The work of this division consists mainly 

 in the preparation of crop schdules several months in advance of their 

 use, the mailing out of schedules to the field agents and voluntary 

 crop reporters, the opening, sorting, and classifying of the returned 

 schedules, the editing, checking, tabulating, adding, and averaging of 

 the returns, the maintenance of lists of crop and special voluntary re- 

 porters, and the inspection of the work and records of the field agents. 

 The data collected and compiled by this division form the basis of the 

 monthly and special crop reports of the bureau. 



DIVISION OF CROP RECORDS. 



This division, under the direct supervision of Mr. Frank Andrews, 

 chief of division, has charge of the official records of crop estimates 

 concerning the United States from Federal, State, and private 

 sources, and agricultural statistics of foreign countries. The rec- 

 ords have been compiled from published and unpublished reports in 

 such a way as to show in concise and convenient form information 

 that is given in the original reports in a more or less scattered way, 

 Ugually in a long series of reports and frequently in foreign units of 

 weight and measure. In every case units of foreign weight and 

 measure have been converted to the equivalent American units. Sta- 

 tistical records relating to agriculture have been completed for 11 

 principal foreign countries and show acreage and production of 

 crops, numbers of different classes of live stock, etc., from the earliest 

 to the latest years for which available. In addition to the 11 coun- 

 tries, about half of the record for Russia is complete. Estimates of 

 United States crop production, as made by State officials and private 

 parties, have been segregated and entered on record practically as 

 soon as received in the division. When the compilation of agricul- 

 tural statistics for the remaining countries is finished, probably 

 within the next year or two, the Bureau of Crop Estimates will 

 have the most complete record of estimates and statistics relating 

 to world crops and live stock in existence, all expressed in terms of 

 American units and in such convenient form as to be immediately 

 available for reference. 



