30 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



and plans to improve marketing and distribution wait upon them, 

 and in any national crisis they are essential to the intelligent han- 

 dling of the Nation's food problems. In this direction, as in many 

 others, the war has brought home in very direct fashion the need 

 of improvement. 



The value of dependable information on acreage, crop yield, num- 

 ber of live stock, and farm surpluses can not be overestimated. 

 The Bureau of Crop Estimates has slowly developed an organization 

 to secure and verify many valuable data. It is now necessary to 

 extend it. The time has arrived for placing the work in all the 

 States on a county basis. It is important that the live-stock and 

 feed-reporting service be enlarged, that farm surpluses be ascertained, 

 and that information regarding foreign crop and live-stock produc- 

 tion be more fully secured and reported. It is peculiarly urgent that 

 this be done at the present time. The 1920 census is about to be 

 taken. It will furnish new base lines, and the department should bo 

 in a position, by reason of an improved service, to supply the country 

 each year after the census with as full and accurate data as possible. 



Estimates to make it practicable for the department to execute the 

 enlarged program will be laid before the Congress for consideration 

 at its regular session. If they are approved, the field force of the 

 bureau will be strengthened by placing an assistant field agent and 

 a clerk in each State. Additional specialists also will be appointed 

 to collect, interpret, and present information regarding special 

 crops and classes of live stock. The bureau then will be in a posi- 

 tion to report for the Nation as a whole, for each State, and for 

 each county, monthly or oftener if necessary, acreages to be planted ; 

 surpluses or deficiencies of seed, fertilizer, labor, and farm machin- 

 ery; acreages actually planted; progress of farm work; acreages 

 abandoned and harvested; damage from weather conditions, insects, 

 and plant diseases; condition of crops and forecasts of pro- 

 duction; yields per acre and production at or near harvest; acre- 

 ages and yields of principal varieties of each crop; disposition 

 and utilization of the crops produced; marketable surpluses and 

 stocks on farms ; prices received by farmers as distinguished from 

 market quotations; prices farmers pay for supplies, machinery, and 

 equipment; hours and wages of farm labor; and the foreign situa- 

 tion. These reports will cover about TO crops, including such special 

 items as vegetables, nuts, fruits, seed, oils, forest products, and 



