FOREWORD 



One of the hig needs of Agriculture is that of ready access to all possible informa- 

 tion relating to production, market supplies and prices, and to basic information from 

 which trends of crop production and livestock breeding may be determined to the end 

 that Agriculture may constantly adjust itself to changing conditions. 



Several months elapse between the time of planting crops and the time of harvest 

 and marketing. A year and more m^y intervene between the time of breeding a meat 

 animal and the time it is finished for market. Obviously if production plans and 

 breeding plans were made entirely on the basis of prices prevailing at the time of 

 planting and breeding, high prices would tend to encourage over-production and low 

 prices to encourage under-production, thus setting up a vicious cycle of over-production 

 with low prices and under-production with high prices. 



It is highly important, therefore, if such vicious cycles are to be avoided, that agri- 

 cultural production be adjusted as closely as possible to the probable prices and market 

 conditions that will prevail at the time such production is ready for market. 



To this end surveys of intentions to plant crops and breed livestock, estimates of 

 conditions and probable harvests of growing crops, carry-over stocks and supplies of 

 crops, estimates of annual changes in livestock numbers, size of calf crops, lamb crops, 

 pig crops and wool clips all contribute to a complete service of information by which 

 agriculture may make its own adjustments. 



Such a service must include not only data for the United States but so far as possi- 

 ble for the foreign countries with which the American farmer is competing, because 

 the market on which- the prices of many of the important agricultural commodities are 

 determined is a world market. 



The United States Bureau of Agricultural Economics with its excellent facilities 

 for collection and compilation of such basic information has been cooperating with the 

 Publicity Division of the Montana State Department of Agriculture, Labor and Indus- 

 try in this work in Montana since 19 SI. Through this cooperation, duplication of effort 

 is avoided and one official source is established from which important agricultural sta- 

 tistics are available. 



Such statistics become the basis from which the agricultural progress of the state 

 may be studied. Students of agriculture and extension workers, banks, railroads, real 

 estate men and the press all use this basic information in their various relationships 

 with agriculture. 



Buyers of agricultural products have long collected for themselves detailed informa- 

 tion on crop and livestock production to enable them to buy more advantageously. By 

 making similar information available to agricultural producers through the use of the 

 press, direct mail and radio, more equality between seller and buyer has been estab- 

 lished. 



No claim is made by anyone connected with this service that its estimates, fore- 

 casts and other economic information are perfect, that is, entirely free of error. How- 

 ever, in cases where it is possible to check estimates against ultimate market supplies 

 end other consumption, the average size of such error has been found surprisingly 

 small, so that general conclusions drawn from such information have been relatively 

 sound. 



In Montana approximately S,000 farmers and stockmen are reporting crop and 

 livestock conditions to the office of the Agricultural Statistician. Throughout the United 

 States more than 200,000 farmers are cooperating in this work. The Federal Crop 

 Reporting Service has been operating under congressional appropriation for more than 

 sixty years and is recognized as the most efficient organization of its kind in the world. 

 Prior to 1921 the Montana service was carried on by the government independent of 

 any state organization. At that time the Department of Agriculture, Labor and Indus- 

 try entered into an agreement with the U. S. Bureau of Agricultural Economics whereby 

 the scope of the work has been enlarged. One of the results of this cooperation has 

 been an annual printed review of Montana's agricultural progress. 



The present publication takes the place of the fifth annual edition of the Montana 

 Farm Review formerly published by the State of Montana as a joint Bulletin with the 

 U. S. Bureau of Agricultural Economics. 



JAY G. DIAMOND, 



Agricultural Statistician, 



U. S. Bureau of Agricultural Economics and the 



State Department of Agriculture, Labor 



and Industry. 



