402 DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS. 



tics into methods of farming, the results of which will have an impor- 

 tant bearing- on such questions as the relative profitableness of crops, 

 the economical utilizatioji of farm labor, etc. 



RECOMMENDATION. 



Another j'ear has passed without the Division having those enlarged 

 opportunities for usefulness which the possession of a bureau organi- 

 zation would give it. As pointed out in the Statistician's last annual 

 report, the fact that the Department's crop-reporting service, num- 

 bering nearly' 250,000 persons, or five times as many as the Census 

 enumerators, is a voluntary service, inevitably results in some lack 

 of » appreciation of its magnitude and of the amount of work involved, 

 not only in tabulating its reports, numbering about 2,500,000 per 

 annum, but also in m iintaining tlie organization itself. A divisional 

 organization can not utilize to the greatest j)ossible advantage the 

 possibilities of usefulness which the j)ossession of this great corps of 

 agricultural correspondents places within its reach. On the other 

 hand, the more elastic organization of a bureau, with that larger cleri- 

 cal force and increased number of statistical experts, could not fail to 

 make the statistical work of the Department more fully commensu- 

 rate with the great agricultural interests of the country, 



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