424 AGRICULTURAL APPROPRIATION BILL, 1924. 



Washington ofTioe. Mr. Bullock has been studying particuhirly the 

 statistical work in Argentina, with the idea of getting better statis- 

 tics out of that country, which are very important from our stand- 

 point, as it produces much of the same products we are producing 

 and those products come in competition with our agriculture. He 

 has also been studying the live stock industry in ^Vrgentina to a con- 

 siderable extent. Just recently we have sent Mr. Lively to 

 Manchuria. 



Two things are particularly in our minds in this work in Siberia 

 and Asia. First we want to get a clear picture of the competition 

 that is coming from there on cereal production, and then we are 

 proposing that he shall go over into certain parts of China to study 

 the cotton production in that country. Something over 1,000,000 

 bales of cotton enter into commerce from China, and it is our desire 

 to know more about where this cotton is produced, the conditions 

 under which it is produced, the labor conditions that make the crop 

 and the whole economic aspect of the production of cotton in China. 



Mr. Anderson. What I would like to know is whether that is 

 something which will become a mere matter of history and which 

 can be embalmed in some library, or has it some relation to what we 

 are doing i 



Mr. Tenny. Through our press service these reports are being 

 given the very widest distribution and they are angle from the point 

 of view of being of assistance to American agriculture to-day and in 

 the future, but primarily with regard to the development of our agri- 

 cultural policy for the future, because if China has the possibilities of 

 producing a certain type of cotton and not another particular type 

 that fact is of very great importance in all of our agricultural work in 

 developing the cotton business in this country. I am usin^ that sim- 

 ply as an illustration. The review I have given covers the work of 

 individuals. In addition, we are getting a great deal of statistical 

 information direct from the countries, analyzing it and issuing it in 

 connection with the crop reporting information. We feel it is just as 

 important, with the channels of trade open as they are now, for us 

 to know what is being produced in foreign countries and what is 

 being done with it as it is to know what is being produced here and 

 what is being done with our home production. So all of these men 

 and all of our correspondents are working from the angle of being of 

 the greatest benefit, from the statistical point of view, to our agri- 

 culture. 



Mr. Anderson. What is the situation now with reference to 

 securing prompt statistics of European production and consumption ? 

 My recollection is that those statistics have come in as a rule six 

 months or a year after they could have been of much use. I am 

 interested in knowing just what is being done with a view to getting 

 those statistics more promptly. 



Mr. Trnny. The statistics of crops and live stock antl live-stock 

 products that we are able to gather from initial sources are cabled, 

 and are handled just as expeditiously as our o^vn crop and live-stock 

 reports. 



Mr. Anderson. Do they come directly from the country concerned ? 



Mr. Tenny. Yes, sir; we are getting them that way, and wo are 

 also getting them two weeks or so later from the institute at Koine. 

 Wc linvc a miiiibci' of other reports. W(> ari> issuing weekly this 



