HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 3899 
and their reasons have to be good. As a matter of fact, their reasons 
always are good. 
The Cuarrman. Practically, why not do away with the other people 
and take their report? 
Mr. Hotmes. Then we would have to have too many men and it 
would cost too much money. We can only afford to send those men in 
the places where there is some offset to the crop—something the matter 
with the crop detrimentally or something that helps the crops. We 
can only send them where there is an unusual condition existing. 
The CHarrman. I do not see how these specialists can be ee every 
day in the year? 
Mr. Hotmzs. Because there is always something unusual existing. 
The Cuarrman. But the cotton crop or the rice crop—some years it 
is hardly in the ground before 
, Mr. Hotmes. We would use them more for cotton than we would 
or rice. 
The Cuarrman. For a certain number of months there is no cotton 
in the ground. That comes under your regular crops; you are getting 
the acreage while it is growing, and after a certain point you get the 
condition. 
Mr. Hotmsrs. We report the condition every month. 
The CHarrman. After it has started to grow? 
Mr. Hoimes. Yes, sir. It requires a good deal of explanation; but 
we have on our cotton list every cotton mill in the South. We have 
a great deal of trouble getting reports from them at different times. 
During the off seasons we send these men to the secretaries or presi- 
dents of these mills and insist on their giving those reports. 
The CHarrMAN. Suppose they refuse? 
Mr. Hotmgs. We can talk them into it. We always have been 
able to. The most of them do not refuse; they simply neglect to do 
it; they are slow in sending them in. This year I had to send thirty- 
five or forty telegrams to owners of cotton mills to get their final 
reports. 
Mr. Scorr. What I wanted to inquire about was this: As I under- 
stand it you have a State agent in every State who gathers from his 
correspondents throughout the State the reports upon the condition of 
the crops every month. 
Mr. Hotmss. Yes, sir. 
Mr. Scort. In the event of a late frost, such as you suggest, or any 
extraordinary condition which might affect the crop, why can not this 
State agent ask his reporters? 
Mr. Hotmes. Because it is too late; he does not have time, usually. 
Mr. Scott. I do not know why they could not send in a report and 
get in as quickly as a special agent could travel from Washington. 
Mr. Hotes. He does not travel from Washington. He is located 
in a certain territory and covers that territory, unless we order him 
out of it. We are in constant communication with him and know 
where he is every minute. We say, ‘‘There has been a frost in such 
and such a country; go down there and see how it has affected the 
crop.” These men are experts. They can go into a wheat field and 
probably tell vou better than a wheat farmer how much damage has 
been done, what the yield is going to be, if the conditions are to be 
maintained as they are when they go into the field. 
