THE BUREAU OF CROP ESTIMATES 



321 



The Office of Home Economics began with food questions, but 

 soon widened its scope to include household management and 

 equipment, and family welfare. 



The Bureau of Public Roads and Rural Engineering was created 

 primarily to carry on investigations in regard to systems of road 

 management, road construction and maintenance, road materials, 

 farm irrigation, drainage, domestic water supply, construction of 

 farm buildings, and miscellaneous rural engineering problems. 

 The "Good Roads" movement throughout the United States 

 received much aid and backing from this bureau (Figs. 62 and 63). 



FIG. 61. Pig demonstration at a boys' short course. Maryland College of Agriculture. 



The Bureau of Markets deals with the problems of agricultural 

 distribution, transportation, warehousing, grading, packing, coop- 

 erative marketing, rural credits, and cooperative purchasing (Fig. 

 64). It has charge of the Cotton Futures Act, the Grain Standards 

 Act, the Warehouse Act. 



The Office of Farm Management covers the field of general 

 agricultural economics (except marketing), including studies of 

 cost of production, farm organization, farm finance, insurance, 

 taxation, farm labor, drift to cities, housing, agricultural history 

 and geography, land utilization and settlement, land tenure, farm 

 life studies, and cooperation. 



The Bureau of Crop Estimates collects and publishes periodi- 

 cally crop and live-stock estimates. The grain trade has now come 

 to place great reliance on the crop estimates gathered by this 

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