New York and New Jersey, where reports received by the department indicated that there was danger of loss of a large amount of such perishables. The Forest Service conducted a forest fire prevention campaign through motion pictures in California, in cooperation with State agencies and a private film corporation. Eight commercial motion-picture weekly reels carried special pictures regarding the production of back-yard poultry, together with trailers urging that more poultry be raised as a war measure. The largest campaign dealt with farm labor. The eight weeklies referred to carried news pictures, animated cartoons, and trailers from March until midsummer making appeals for the enlisting in farm work of people from the cities. Many other commercial films also carried trailers on this subject. While it is impossible to measure the effect of these efforts, it is known that millions of people were reached thereby and that much farm labor was recruited as a direct result. The motion-picture companies and theaters have given the department valuable cooperation in placing information and appeals of emergency character before the public. DOCUMENT SECTION. DISTRIBUTION OF PUBLICATIONS. The document section, in charge of Mr. Francis J. P. Cleary, directs the distribution of the bulletins, reports, documents, circulars, leaflets, posters, etc., issued by the department. The actual mailing of the publications is done at the office of the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, except in the case of emergency publications requiring immediate issuance, which are sent out from the document section. On account of the great increase in the number and variety of printed documents, including war-emergency circulars, etc., the work of the section far exceeded that of any previous year. On July 1, 1917, there were on hand 7,739,738 publications of all classes, including those at the department. During the year ended June 30, 1918, 92,954,011 publications were received, which, together with the stock on hand at the beginning of the fiscal year, made available 100,693,749 publications, to which may be added press notices and lists of Farmers' Bulletins, numbering 10,786,562, making a grand total of 111,480,311 publications available for distribution. Of the number available for distribution 99,222,321 were distributed, as follows: Publications distributed. Miscellaneous publications. Lists of Farmers' Bulletins. 65, 298, 266 On July 1, 1918, there remained on hand 12,184,304 publications, not including press notices and lists of Farmers' Bulletins, divided into 1,768,915 of the miscellaneous class and 10,415,389 Farmers' Bulletins. Included in the miscellaneous distribution were the regular annual publications, the divisional serial publications, and publications in the nature of emergency leaflets, circulars, and posters. The 23,137,529 Farmers' Bulletins were distributed under the following heads: Farmers' Bulletin distribution. Congressional distribution...... Filling the original schemes of distribution.... Filling orders from divisions in the department and from Miscellaneous applicants.... This enormous distribution-the largest in the history of the department-involved a great amount of clerical and manual labor. A record was kept with each individual publication. As more than 4,000 individual publications are carried in stock at present, this was a work of great magnitude. Owing to the fact that there are many series of department publications, and many pamphlets fall in a class between circulars and "jobs," exceedingly close application is required to keep this record accurately. These records often furnish information for the bureaus in the department when contemplating some particular distribution of publications, and they also furnish data to the Office of Information for the distribution of press stories. CONGRESSIONAL DISTRIBUTION. A part of the record keeping includes a stock record kept with each Farmers' Bulletin; also an account with each Senator, Representative, and Delegate in Congress. The first-mentioned record is the basis for ordering reprints for the purpose of restocking and the latter to inform Members of Congress of the state of their allot ments. In connection with the congressional distribution, 45,557 letters were received during the year, and in complying with the requests contained therein 43,673 orders were issued on the Office of the Superintendent of Documents, calling for 9,098,482 Farmers' Bulletins, which were sent to persons residing in different parts of the country. In many cases the selection of Farmers' Bulletins is left to the document section. There are rush periods of this class of work, and at such times the force assigned to it is required to work exceedingly hard to keep from falling in arrears. It is hoped that the appropriation providing for emergency labor will relieve this situation to a great extent. MISCELLANEOUS DISTRIBUTION. Several thousand requests for publications are received daily from miscellaneous applicants in different parts of the country. These requests are largely due to the Monthly List of Publications, which is mailed to approximately 200,000 persons each month. The classification of these letters and the making of orders for the mailing of publications, which are sent from the office of the Superintendent of Documents, require the best efforts of a correspondence unit composed of 30 clerks, in charge of Mr. John O. Riley. Within the last fiscal year 762,744 communications requesting publications and other information were received. In complying with these requests 729,520 orders were issued on the Superintendent of Documents. All communications were acknowledged either by sending the publication requested, by form or postal card stating why the publication could not be sent, or by quoting the price at which it could be purchased from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office. There is a distinct rush season in the handling of miscellaneous mail-from January to April each year. The volume of mail received during that time is greater than in any other period of the year, and during such time it is difficult to keep the work up to date with the regular force. This is the reason that an additional appropriation of $2,500 for additional labor was requested for the next fiscal year. With this fund available it is believed that there will be no difficulty in keeping the work up to date during the present year. Probably because of prompt and careful attention to all requests received from miscellaneous applicants, a considerable constituency has developed, composed of correspondents who incorporate in letters requests other than for publications. It was therefore necessary during the year to refer 48,444 such communications to other bureaus. The keeping of an index of the names of individuals to whom the Yearbook is sent is also assigned to the correspondence unit, and 27,000 entries were made for the Yearbook for 1917. The correspondence unit also furnishes publications and information to constituents of Members of Congress upon requests from such officials. Much information is furnished to correspondents in the form of written communications, in addition to the regular form communication in use. During the year 75,116 typewritten communications were prepared and mailed. This number was considerably less than the number for the preceding fiscal year, principally because during the last quarter of the year the typewritten letters to Members of Congress were greatly reduced by the use of forms. The time thus saved was used in cutting stencils for mimeograph work, principally for the Office of Information. During the quarter mentioned, 284 such stencils were cut. WORK OF THE MACHINE ROOM. The labor-saving machine unit contains addressing, duplicating, paper-cutting, folding, and pad-making machines, with which a very large amount of work was done, part of it cooperative service for 21 different branches of the department. During the year 1,413 jobs of duplicating work were done, totaling 3,754,366 copies and requiring 5,767,692 impressions. The work involved the assembling of 2,490,364 pages and the stapling of 190,268 sheets of paper. Mailing lists maintained here contain 250,789 addresses. For these lists stencils were cut for 52,932 new addresses, and 29,440 stencils were removed from the files. At present about 200 different mailing lists are maintained in this office, controlled by 16 divisions in the department. Franks and envelopes numbering 6,772,398 were addressed on the addressing machines during the year; 307,452 congressional franks furnished to this office in sheets were cut, besides 1,616,418 sheets of paper furnished by other branches of the department; 13,535 pads were made and distributed to offices desiring them, and 2,037,612 circulars were folded on the folding machine. The machine room continues in charge of Mr. C. E. Bracey. WORK OF THE FOLDING ROOM. Probably no other class of work in the Division of Publications has increased in the same proportion as the work of the folding room, which was more than 100 per cent greater than during the preceding year. This increase was due to the great number of emergency publications issued in connection with the department's campaign to stimulate agriculture and conserve food. MAILING LIST RECORD WORK. Closely related to the mailing and folding work is that of the mailing list records maintained by the Division of Publications at the office of the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office. These stenciled addresses comprise 281 individual mailing lists, each mailing list being controlled by the bureau, office, or division creating it, this division acting as a medium. This work includes the typewriting and alphabetizing of cards, indexing, and the general index of addresses. In addition to the mailing-list record work, the force assigned to it cooperated with other offices in the department by writing 165,328 addresses to which publications were mailed. FOREIGN MAIL. During the last fiscal year 59,681 packages, weighing 24,110 pounds 2 ounces and requiring an expenditure of $1,928.81, were mailed from this division, while 3,543 packages, weighing 1,613 pounds 14 ounces, at a cost of $80.66, were sent through the Smithsonian Exchange, bringing the total cost up to $2,009.47. RECEIVING AND DISTRIBUTING JOB WORK. The work of receiving and distributing job work coming both from the Government Printing Office and from private printers is steadily increasing. Approximately 60,000,000 copies of the various blank forms used throughout the department were received and forwarded. PERSONNEL. Members of the force engaged in distribution worked exceedingly well and very faithfully indeed during the year. The spirit shown was excellent. The work was hampered to a considerable degree by the loss of 70 employees during the year. REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF CROP ESTIMATES. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, BUREAU OF CROP ESTIMATES, SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith the report of the Bureau of Crop Estimates for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1918. Respectfully, Hon. D. F. HOUSTON, Secretary of Agriculture. ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE. The entrance of the United States into the war has given new significance to the functions of the Bureau of Crop Estimates. The responsibility laid upon this Nation not only of feeding itself and the Allies, but to do so with less than a normal number of agricultural workers, has made it necessary to know more promptly and more in detail than ever before the present conditions and future prospects of the important food crops. The organization of the bureau was such that with a comparatively small increase in force it was possible not only to issue the regular reports, but to supply the very large amount of special information desired by officials of the Department of Agriculture, of the Food Administration, and others. An instance of this was the so-called food survey made as of December 31, 1917. More than 500,000 inquiries designed to secure special information relative to food conditions at the close of that year were mailed in December. A portion of the returns were sent to the field agents for tabulation; the bulk of them, however, were handled in the Washington office. That portion of the inquiry relating to live stock was tabulated and printed in the February issue of the Monthly Crop Report and the remainder appeared in the May issue. All of the information was fully tabulated and available to the department heads and the Food Administration officials at even earlier dates. These and other important results in addition to the regular work of the bureau have been obtained with little or no outward indications of the extra work accomplished. One source of anxiety to the administrative office is the lack of adequate working space in Washington. It was considered that the space available to the bureau was fully utilized prior to the increase in force. With that increase, however, has come no increase in space, so that the performance of the work is difficult and the conditions in |