applicants, as well as placing them in touch with officials in this and other departments to secure additional information. In handling this correspondence it was necessary to issue 130,684 orders on the Superintendent of Documents for miscellaneous publications, and 374,605 for Farmers' Bulletins, while 43,022 form letters were sent to persons requesting publications. Reference to other offices was made of 37,800 requests for information. In cooperation with other bureans 10,455 addresses were written by the correspondence unit. Addresses to which the Yearbook for 1918 was sent were indexed, numbering 17,000.

CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENCE.

During the year 36,406 communications were received from Senators and Representatives requesting publications. In addition to the addressing and counting of franks, the checking of lists, and the interpreting of requests, it was necessary to file 33,296 orders with the office of the Superintendent of Documents of the Government Printing Office. It was also necessary to count millions of franks and checked lists to ascertain the aggregate number of bulletins requested and chargeable to the accounts of Senators, Representatives, and Delegates. The work also involves in many instances the selection of the proper publications to be sent.

In connection with the correspondence incident to distributing publications, much stenographic and typewriting work is required. Although thousands of blank forms and fill-in letters are used in handling the great bulk of the correspondence, 15,289 letters were dictated and 4,395 were composed and written by the stenographic force, while 36,931 form letters were filled in and sent out. In addition to this, 3,173 letters originally routed to this office were referred to other bureaus and departments, making an aggregate of 59,789 communications handled by the stenographic force. Two hundred and seventeen stencils were cut in the stenographic room for use in connection with the work of supplying data for the press.

MAILING LIST RECORDS.

There was much activity in revising mailing lists during the year, many lists maintained both here and at the office of the Superintendent of Documents being revised, and a number of others that had become obsolete being discontinued. The work of revising mailing lists is going on constantly.

The distribution work was in charge of Francis J. P. Cleary, superintendent of distribution.

ADDRESSING AND DUPLICATING SECTION.

The multigraph work increased 26.5 per cent over the preceding year, 4,014,842 pages of such matter being run off. The number of mimeograph pages run off was 2,176,298. This was an increase of 3.88 per cent. Miscellaneous work comprising addressograph, graphotype, paper cutting, folding, assembling sheets of duplicated matter, stapling, round-hole cutting, etc., increased 44 per cent.

The task of transferring the permanent mailing lists to the addressograph system was completed during the year. The number of

employees engaged in addressing envelopes and franks for mailing publications has been reduced, while the output has increased. The present system permits more expeditious and efficient handling of all the work in connection with the addressing, care, and maintenance of the various permanent mailing lists now installed in the division.

The number of copies of publications of all kinds, circulars, press notices, etc., mailed by the folding-room unit aggregated 8,163,266 copies, a slight decrease compared with the preceding year and an approximate return to prewar conditions.

The addressing and duplicating section was under the supervision of C. E. Bracey, assistant in charge.

REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF CROP

ESTIMATES.

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,

BUREAU OF CROP ESTIMATES, Washington, D. C., October 1, 1920.

SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith the report of the Bureau of Crop Estimates for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1920.

Respectfully,

LEON M. ESTABROOK,

Chief of Bureau.

APPROPRIATIONS.

In presenting the situation of the Bureau of Crop Estimates, the conditions under which its work is carried on can not be clearly understood without reference to its annual appropriations. Prior to 1907 the appropriations of the bureau were less than $200,000 annually and did not reach $300,000 prior to 1917, the first year in which the United States took part in the World War. Interest in crop and live-stock statistics, especially in relation to the food supply, was greatly stimulated by the war, and the demands upon the crop-reporting and statistical service for such information increased steadily. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 1918, the bureau had a regular appropriation of $323,452, which was supplemented by an allotment from war emergency funds of $61,590, making a total of $385,042. For the next fiscal year ended June 30, 1919, the regular appropriation was increased to $346,232, with a supplemental allotment of emergency funds of about $117,040, or a total of $463,272. The regular appropriation for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1920, was $371,102, which was $92,170 less than the amount available the previous year.

The larger appropriations of 1918 and 1919 enabled the bureau to expand the crop-reporting service and to supply its branch State offices with much-needed equipment. Inasmuch as the demand for crop and live-stock statistics stimulated by the war has continued, it seemed highly desirable to continue the same service in the fiscal year 1920 as was furnished the preceding year. The attempt was made with an appropriation one-fifth less and in the face of higher cost of all stationery, supplies, and equipment, the difference in the appropriations being met by dispensing with the services of onefifth of the clerical force at the Washington office and by making a

reduction of more than 50 per cent in the travel allotments of the field force. These measures, made necessary by the reduced appropriation, together with the rapid turnover of personnel due to inadequate salaries, greatly crippled the efficiency of the bureau and impaired the value of the service. Further difficulties were encountered when, at the last session of Congress, the appropriation for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1920, was reduced about $53,000 and it became evident that it would be necessary to discontinue special service for fruit, truck, potato, tobacco, rice, and cotton crops-crops having an annual value in excess of 43 billion dollars. As soon as it became known in the spring of 1920 that the appropriation would be reduced the next fiscal year, the trained crop specialists of the bureau resigned to accept higher salaries in private employment or in other branches of the service. It was therefore impracti cable to carry out the bureau's program of rendering the same service in the fiscal year ending June 20, 1920, with greatly reduced force and funds, as was furnished in the previous year.

WORK ACCOMPLISHED.

ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE.

The administrative force was kept fully occupied with routine matters of administration, answering a growing correspondence, ordering and distributing supplies and stationery, accounting for bureau finances, preparing numerous statements for the press as a means of disseminating crop information, taking part in departmental conferences, service on bureau, departmental, and interdepartmental committees, and representing the bureau and the department at various public meetings of farmers and business men to present and discuss the statistics of crop and live-stock production. Early in the fiscal year the chief of bureau was designated as the personal representative of the Secretary of Agriculture on the Interdepartmental Committee of the Council of National Defense. An increasing number of problems required consideration resulting from the reduced appropriation and personnel of the bureau, the inadequate salaries and large turnover of employees, the loss of trained specialists and experienced employees, and the impracticability of replacing them even with inexperienced men at the salaries available, the inadequate travel funds, and the increasing public demand for service.

The Multigraph and Duplicating Section turned out 6.483,561 pages of material in the form of statements, circulars, questionnaires, and schedules of various kinds. The bureau was greatly handicapped by lack of adequate storage space for large quantities of stationery required, but it was found impracticable to secure the additional space needed until after the close of the fiscal year. The Mailing Section was equipped with a new automatic conveyor for assembling and mailing crop report schedules and enclosures of various kinds.

The Crop Reporting Board, made up of administrative officials and one or more State agricultural statisticians called into Washington each month, prepared and issued the monthly crop reports on the hour and minute fixed and announced the preceding December.

In the autumn of 1919 two Senate resolutions were passed requiring the Bureau of Crop Estimates to estimate the cotton acreage abandoned and to furnish a supplemental estimate of the condition of the cotton crop on October 25. The Bureau complied with both resolutions and the information desired was published in the October and November issues of the Monthly Crop Reporter.

In cooperation with the Bureau of the Census, this bureau collected from its crop reporters data on average prices of farm crops and live stock in each county for use in computing values for the 1920 census.

THE DIVISION OF CROP REPORTS.

The past year was probably the most difficult the Division of Crop Reports has experienced since its organization. The bureau's inability to pay adequate salaries to meet the greatly increased cost of living and the higher scale of wages in private employment, caused a continual shifting of employees, 16 having left the division during the fiscal year 1920. This resulted not only in the loss of clerical service during the time which necessarily elapses between the date of resignation and the appointment of a successor but in the necessity of continually training new employees, during which time their services are of little value. The expiration of the war emergency fund and the partial withdrawal of the help assigned by the Bureau of Markets for cooperative work on the live-stock report caused an approximate loss of an average of 18 employees (the number ranging from 12 to 28 throughout the year), or a decrease in the working force of the division of nearly 37 per cent.

Notwithstanding this decrease in the working force, projects begun during the war have been continued in addition to the regular crop and live-stock reports. During the year 3,384,834 schedules of inquiry were sent out by this division.

Increased difficulty was experienced in securing crop reporters and getting returns from them, probably on account of the shortage of hired labor and the extra work forced upon the farmer. Nevertheless, all of the lists and the number of schedules returned each month were maintained. The following table shows the number of reporters serving on each list:

Number of crop reporters on the various lists.

An essential piece of work performed during the year which involved considerable labor was the checking and correcting of the bureau stencil lists of about 100,000 crop correspondents maintained in the Division of Publications and the Government Printing Office.