branch of the department's work, in order that it may be in position to render effective service to producers, farm organizations, and others. Since May, 1918, an agricultural trade commissioner has been stationed in the United Kingdom to study the markets for agricultural products in Europe and to make timely reports for the information of American producers and exporters. The work of this commissioner has conclusively demonstrated the desirability of stationing additional commissioners at strategic points in the various markets of the world. Plans already have been developed for the establishment of an office in Buenos Aires to aid in promoting our trade with South America in pure-bred live stock.

The establishment of a world market-reporting service will not interfere in any way with the activities of the International Institute of Agriculture at Rome, but, on the contrary, will effectively supplement them. The reports issued by the institute are based largely on the official estimates of the various adhering Governments, but many of them are incomplete or are received too late to be of immediate practical service to producers and others in this country. They are, nevertheless, highly useful for historical and comparative purposes. The work of the institute was greatly interfered with during the war, but, following the meeting of the general assembly in Rome on November 3, it is anticipated that it will resume active operations. After the death of Mr. David Lubin, the delegate of the United States, this country was without representation at the institute for nearly two years. This was due to the fact that the amount allowed for salary and expenses, $3,600 per annum, made it impossible to secure a man with the right sort of training and experience who would be willing to undertake the work permanently. At the suggestion of this department, the Secretary of State has recommended that the salary of the delegate be increased to $7,500 per annum, and that provision be made for the payment of his traveling and miscellaneous expenses and for the employment of a secretary.

COMBINE MARKETING AND CROP-ESTIMATING WORK.

I have recommended in the estimates to the Congress that authority be given to consolidate the Bureau of Crop Estimates and the Bureau of Markets. I have been influenced to take this course by a number of important considerations. The first is that each of the bureaus, in accomplishing the important work with which it is charged, needs the additional strength that could be brought to it by some portion of the machinery of the other. In the second place, the legal duties of the two overlap in some directions, and there is a natural and inevitable tendency for each bureau to duplicate a portion of the other's work. This tendency would be eliminated by the proposed consolidation, and confusion in the public mind as to the

division of work between the two bureaus would be avoided. Furthermore, crop and market reports could be published together, and farmers and business men would have all the facts in one document. The leased telegraph wires of the Bureau of Markets could be utilized for transmitting crop information to Washington and for its prompt dissemination. In some States, the branch offices of the two bureaus could be brought together in the same quarters, and frequently the same crop and live-stock specialists could serve both bureaus, not only in this country but abroad. The operating forces of the two organizations could be combined, as well as the duplicating and mailing services and the staffs dealing with the purchase, custody, distribution, and utilization of supplies. Specialists working along statistical and economic lines in both bureaus could be brought together in a statistical research division to handle statistics of production, consumption, imports and exports, surpluses and deficiencies, and farm and market prices of agricultural products for all countries. In short, the proposed consolidation is in line with good administration and efficiency in the public service and should be put into effect without delay.

CROP AND LIVE-STOCK REPORTING SERVICE.

No problem can be satisfactorily considered, nor can any business be permanently successful, without accurate and complete statistics. Agriculture is the greatest business and the most fundamentally important industry in the United States, not only because of the amount of capital invested, the number of people employed, and the new wealth created annually, but because it supplies the Nation's food. furnishes vast quantities of raw materials for the manufacture of clothing and other necessary commodities, and contributes largely to the export trade of the country.

The Bureau of Crop Estimates, through more than half a century of experience, has developed and perfected methods for ascertaining and verifying many of the essential statistical facts of farm production. It is operating during the present fiscal year under the serious. handicap of inadequate funds and reduced personnel, in the face of a constantly increasing demand for the services it is designed to render. Its appropriations were reduced by $53,000 at the last session of the Congress, necessitating the discontinuance of the special reporting service for cotton, tobacco, rice, potatoes, truck, and fruit crops. Not only should this service be restored, but, as the demand for agricultural statistics, especially in connection with marketing problems, is steadily increasing, the time has come when an expansion of the machinery of the bureau is urgently needed. The data collected by the 1920 census will soon be available as bases for crop

and live-stock estimates during the next 10 years, and the expansion should be provided for without delay. The crop and live-stock reporting service should be greatly enlarged; farm surpluses should be ascertained periodically, and essential data should be published more promptly and in such form that they may be readily understood and utilized. Estimates of the funds required to enable the department to accomplish these purposes will be submitted to the Congress.

SUPERVISION OF LIVE-STOCK MARKETS.

The supervision of the live-stock markets, authorized by the President's proclamations of June 18 and September 6, 1918, issued under the provisions of the food-control act of August 10, 1917, has been continued by the Bureau of Markets, but the work has been greatly handicapped by the lack of funds. Definite proof was obtained that certain firms were exacting overcharges in the feed accounts of their shippers, and they were given an opportunity to refund the overcharges. Some did so, but six of them sought and obtained from the district court at Chicago an order restraining the Secretary of Agriculture from revoking their licenses. These cases are still pending, and further action on all similar cases involving such overcharges is necessarily deferred, awaiting the decision of the court.

In July and August, 1920, commission men in Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha, and East St. Louis put into effect new schedules of commission rates, providing increases ranging as high as 25 per cent on cattle, calves, hogs, sheep, and goats shipped in car lots by single owners. After careful consideration of the evidence and data in the possession of the department, the conclusion was reached that these increased rates were unjust and not warranted by trade conditions. Orders were issued, therefore, to all commission men in the cities named to refrain from exacting the increased rates or charges. They not only did not comply with the orders, but some of them instituted suits in the Federal courts to restrain the department and the United States attorneys from proceeding against them for failure to do so. Temporary restraining orders were granted by the courts and dates were set for the Government to be heard. At the hearings in Chicago and Kansas City, the department cooperated with the United States attorney in the argument of the legal questions involved, and the whole matter is now before the courts for determination. At Kansas City, under an order of the court, the commission men are depositing with the clerk of the court, to abide the results of the litigation, all receipts by them which represent the difference between the commissions they were ordered to discontinue and those found to be just and reasonable. A similar practice is being followed at Omaha and East St. Louis.

Another order was issued by the department in August, 1920, declaring the rates charged by the commission men at Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha, and East St. Louis for handling car lots having more than one owner to be unjust, unreasonable, discriminatory, and unfair, and substituting a different and equitable schedule of rates. This action was taken on the basis of information in the possession of the department and after a hearing held in Chicago on April 12 and 13, 1920, at which seven commission firms operating under Federal licenses appeared. The order of the department was complied with at Chicago and the lower rates made effective there, but it is being contested at the other points in conjunction with the suits involving the rates for single-owner shipments.

FARM MANAGEMENT AND FARM ECONOMICS.

The economic problems of agricultural production have long been uppermost in the minds of American farmers. They are pressing for solution and their importance has been sharply emphasized by the recent price declines. In spite of many handicaps, the Office of Farm Management and Farm Economics is dealing actively with these problems, giving special attention to matters relating to cost of production and farm organization, farm labor, farm finance, land economics, including land settlement and colonization, and the social side of rural life. Following the reorganization of the office in 1919, there was submitted to the Congress a revised estimate calling for additional funds for the development of its activities along the lines recommended by the committee on reorganization. The Congress, however, did not take favorable action on the proposal and no increase was granted. The recommendation was renewed in the estimates of the department for the fiscal year 1921, but the Congress again failed to provide the amount suggested, although it did grant a small increase over the appropriation for the fiscal year 1920.

In the estimates for the next fiscal year, I am recommending that an adequate sum be made available to the Office of Farm Management and Farm Economics for the prosecution and development of the important projects upon which it is engaged. I am recommending, also, that the name of the office be changed to "Bureau" of Farm Management and Farm Economics. If the necessary appropriation is granted, it is proposed to expand materially the studies of the cost of producing farm products and also to develop the other lines of work under way.

COST OF PRODUCTION.

Several valuable contributions to the available data regarding the cost of producing farm products, particularly cotton, wheat, and beef cattle, already have been made. There has been a constant

demand from the public generally, but more especially from farmers and farm organizations, for the results of these studies, and it has been repeatedly urged that they should be extended and others undertaken. There is urgent need of cost studies with reference to such crops as corn, oats, sugar beets, beans, rice, etc., and there is equal need of adequate and comprehensive studies relating to the organization of various types of farms and ranches.

Such studies furnish the farmer information which enables him to reduce expenses or otherwise to increase his profits. If he makes full use of it, he will be in position to adjust his operations from time to time to those enterprises which will yield a satisfactory profit, to add to his individual income, and, ultimately, to influence the prosperity of his community. Cost studies also inform the general public regarding the cost of producing farm products and should tend to bring about a more general realization, on the part of the consumer, of the necessity of paying prices which will adequately reward the farmer and secure the necessary supplies in the markets.

THE FARM LABOR PROBLEM.

The seriousness of the farm labor problem is everywhere realized. It has been present in more or less acute form for more than a decade and failure to recognize its complexity has resulted in many unwise attempts to solve it. Thoroughgoing scientific study of the whole. problem is needed as a basis of action, but such a study has been impossible up to this time because of the lack of funds. During the present fiscal year, only $5,000 is available for the purpose. While this sum is entirely inadequate to cover the whole field, a promising beginning has been made and sufficient funds should be provided for the prosecution of the work on a more comprehensive basis.

FARM FINANCE.

The financial problems of the farm have become more and more involved, until to-day they rank in importance with the financial problems of commercial industries. While an excellent beginning has been made in the study of farm-mortgage credit, farm insurance, and personal credit, sufficient funds are not available to deal adequately with many matters about which information is needed, including the methods employed and results obtained by farmers in attempts to improve their credit through united and cooperative action; life insurance in relation to farm finance, covering the use of life insurance contracts as a means of improving the credit of the farmer; methods of taxation as they affect agriculture; crop and live stock insurance, the need of such protection and the agencies offering it; and the place of accident and liability insurance in farming operations.