OFFICE OF FARM MAN'AGEMENT. 465 



Lenawee County, Michigan," covering the results obtained in a 

 typical dairy farming area in southern Michigan, was also issued 

 during the year. 



CROP ECONOMICS. 



During the year material was collected in western New York with 

 special reference to labor-saving devices in handling the apple crop. 

 Supplementary data were also secured in connection with a survey 

 which was made in the apple-growing districts of western New York 

 about two years ago. This practically completes the list of reports 

 relating to the cost factors in the production of apples under various 

 conditions in the United States. No new work was started on apples 

 during the year. 



Progress was made in bringing to completion a part of the investi- 

 gational work on hay. In 1918 records were taken in the alfalfa 

 and Johnson grass districts of Alabama and Mississippi. Two de- 

 scriptive bulletins, namely, Farmers' Bulletin 1009, entitled " Hay 

 Stackers,'' and Farmers' Bulletin 1049, entitled *"' Baling Hay," were 

 published during the year. 



Prior to 1918 a large number of estimates were obtained from 

 farmers on the production of corn silage, particularly with reference 

 to the effect oi the degree of maturity on yields, skrinkage and 

 wastage in storage, and the relative costs of different methods of 

 handling this crop. A careful analysis has been made of the in- 

 formation contained in these records and comprehensive reports have 

 been prepared summarizing the results. 



Two hundred and eighty-five sugar-beet enterprise records were 

 obtained in the irrigated districts of Colorado during the summer of 

 1918. These records were concerned chiefly with the labor require- 

 ments of such crops as alfalfa, barley, wheat, oats, beans, corn, etc., 

 which are grown in the beet-producing sections. Three publications 

 on sugar beets were issued, namely. Department Bulletin 748, '' Farm 

 Practice in Growing Sugar Beets in Michigan and Ohio," Depart- 

 ment Bulletin 760, " Farm Practice in Growing Sugar Beets in Three 

 California Districts," and Farmers' Bulletin 1042, " Saving Man 

 Labor in Sugar Beet Fields." 



LIVE-STOCK ECONOMICS. 



In the field of live-stock economics studies of the costs of growing 

 and of fattening beef cattle, which covered a number of the large 

 w^estern ranches and selected areas in the corn-belt region, were un- 

 dertaken in cooperation with the Federal Trade Commission, and 

 the data obtained have been Avorked up and submitted to the com- 

 mission. 



Data are now being gathered on the cost of fattening beef cattle 

 for the market. Cooperative relations have been estaiblished with 

 the Bureau of Animal Industry, and financial cooperative relations 

 lave been arranged with Indiana and Illinois for the carrying on of 

 tliis investigation. 



