SPECIAL REPORTS.

Among the special reports published during the year in the Monthly Crop Reports were the following:

Acreages contracted for by canners. August, 1917; June, 1918.

Apple estimates by varieties. September, 1917.

Bean varieties. August, 1917.

Beans, edible, special report. April, 1918.

Bean and pea acreage for feed. October, 1917.

Cabbage, special acreage and production reports. September, October, November,

1917.

Cabbage for kraut. March, 1918.

Celery crop of California. November, 1918.
Celery crop of California. November, 1918.
Cordwood used on farms. January, 1918.

Corn for seed, deficiency for 1918. March, 1918.

Corn for seed, tested. June, 1918.

Corn damaged by frost, special reports. October, November, 1918.
Corn and hog prices compared. April, 1918.
Corn, white, yellow, and mixed, production.
Crop acreages, total by States. May, 1918.
Crop production, yearly variation, charts.
Crop production and railroad tonnage compared. July, 1918.
Crops on farms January 1. May, 1918.

December, 1917.
June, 1918.

Crop prices and production. November, 1918.

Depth of plowing, by States. February, 1918.

Durum wheat receipts and exports. August, 1918.

Farmers and farm laborers, 1910. Classified March, 1918.

Farm labor, how hired. November, 1917; March, 1918.
Farm products, total value yearly. January, 1918.

Farms, number, reporting various crops and live stock. May, 1918.
Fertilizers on cotton. August, 1917.

Foodstuffs, foreign trade, 1912-1917. March, 1918.
Food supplies of various countries, index numbers.
Grain and forage crops in the South, special report.
Hay crop, per cent baled.
Hemp acreage, by States.
Hog marketings monthly.

October, 1917.
September, 1917.
September, 1917.

August, 1917.
May, 1918.

Honey crop. September, November, 1917; May, 1918.

Hop production and consumption. November, 1917.

Horses and mules, average weight by States. February, 1918.

Horses, number used per plow, by States. February, 1918.

Index numbers of crop production, prices and values, eight years. December,

1917.

Index numbers of prices of farm products. May, 1918.

Largest crop yields per acre, 1916. January, 1918.

Leading States in production of staple crops. July, 1918.

Live stock, total values, by States. February, 1918.

Live stock, yearly marketings, 1900-1917. February, 1918.

Live stock in principal countries. February, 1918.
Live stock, cycle of prices, charts. April, 1918.
Maple sugar, special report. May, June, 1918.

September, October, 1917.

Meat and meat animal exports, 1901-1917. February, 1918.
Onions, commercial acreage and production.
Peach crop, special report. July, 1918.
Peas, for canneries. March, 1918.
Plow lands, value per acre. April, 1918.
Potatoes, stocks January 1. January, 1918.
Potato forecast, by months of harvest. November, 1918.
Potatoes, months when disposed of. May, 1918.
Prices of articles bought by farmers. March, 1918.
Prices, yearly average, of important products, 10 years.
Production per man and per acre, in various countries.
Rice, varieties sown. September, 1917.
Sheep breeds. April, 1918.

Silos in the United States. August, 1918.

December, 1917.
July, 1918.

Strawberries, commercial acreage and production. June, 1918.

Swine losses 1884-1918, chart. April, 1918.

Trend of crop prices, farm wages, and land values, 1909-1917. April, 1918.
Truck crops, winter condition. December, 1917.

Wages of farm labor. March, 1918.

Wheat exports monthly, 1910-1917.
Wheat fed to live stock. March 1918.

Wheat, maximum yield. July, 1918.

March, 1918.

Wheat, monthly farm movement. November, 1917; March, 1918.

Wheat prices in England, yearly since 1859. November, 1917.

Wheat prices, monthly, 1910-1917. November, 1917.

Wheat, surplus and deficiency, by States. October, 1917.

Wheat, where held monthly. March, 1917.

When farmers sell their crops. August, 1917.

Winter wheat, acreage planted and harvested yearly. July, 1918.

TRIBUTE TO AMERICAN FARMERS.

Perhaps no branch of the public service is in position to recognize so promptly and appreciate so fully as the Bureau of Crop Estimates what has been accomplished by the farmers of the United States since the breaking out of the world war. From the reports of its thousands of voluntary crop reporters and its field agents who travel over each State and report weekly and monthly their observations, the bureau is in constant touch with the progress of crop production from month to month and year to year. It has seen the supply of farm labor steadily decrease from heavy drafts made upon it by other industries, especially since the beginning of the war, and it has noted the decrease in the supply of commercial fertilizers. It has noted also the steady rise in farm wages, and in prices of farm machinery and everything else that farmers have to buy. With an unbounded faith in the patriotism and determination of farmers to do their utmost to help win the war by maintaining the production of food and raw materials, it nevertheless has marveled that the farmers of the United States apparently have accomplished the impossible by continuing to plant larger areas and to harvest larger crops in the aggregate with each year of the war in spite of the difficulties of securing farm labor, supplies, machinery, and other necessary articles.

The planting and cultivating of 32,000,000 acres more in 1917 than in 1914 by the farmers of this country is comparable with the phenomenal increase in the military forces, or with anything that has been accomplished by any other industry, not excepting the building of ships, or the manufacture of munitions and supplies, for the tremendous increase in agriculture was accomplished with fewer and fewer men, while the other industries constantly increased their man power.

This great achievement of American farmers is not so spectacular nor has it received the same publicity and recognition as the launching of some hundreds of new ships, the manufacture of large quantities of munitions, air planes, and Liberty motors, or the transport of unprecedented numbers of troops overseas, because the preparation of the soil, and the planting, cultivating, and harvesting of crops are slow processes and are not concentrated in time and place under direct observation nor heralded to the people by the press. Nevertheless, this production of food crops on an enlarged scale, at greatly increased expense of time, effort, and labor and by fewer men,

steadily and without publicity or the inspiration that comes from large bodies of men working together, has done as much to insure the winning of the war against the military despotism of Europe as any other one factor.

All the effort that has been made by the Federal Department of Agriculture, by the State colleges of agriculture and experiment stations, and by other State and national agencies since the United States entered the war would have been of no avail without the effective, the efficient and patriotic service of the American farmer. It is the special function of the Bureau of Crop Estimates to record and publish the acreage planted and the crops harvested by the farmers. of the United States, and it therefore seems appropriate at this time that the Bureau should record its estimate of their great contribution to the winning of the war.

REPORT OF THE LIBRARIAN.

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,

OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN, Washington, D. C., September 30, 1918.

SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith the executive report of the Library for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1918.

Respectfully,

Hon. D. F. HOUSTON,

CLARIBEL R. BARNETT, Librarian.

Secretary of Agriculture..

WORK OF THE YEAR.

The war has affected the work of the Library during the past year in a number of ways. In certain departments the work has increased decidedly, while in others a decrease has been noticeable. Taken as a whole the year was one of progress. In spite of the handicap of insufficient assistance, the Library and its branches have been brought into more vital relation with the Department, with other Departments of the Government, and with institutions and libraries throughout the country. New activities have been begun and new contacts have been made which it is believed will enable the Library to be of still greater usefulness in the future and to approximate more nearly the service which a national agricultural library should render.

REFERENCE AND LOAN DIVISIONS.

Miss EMMA B. HAWKS, Assistant Librarian, in general charge.
Miss MARY G. LACY, Reference Librarian.

Miss GERTRUDE E. UPTON, Loan Desk Assistant.

The most noticeable effect of the war on the work of the Library has been in the reference and loan divisions. While a decrease has occurred in the number of books circulated, the reference work of the main Library and the bureau and division libraries has increased greatly. This increase is due to two causes, first, the war activities of this and other Government departments, which have given rise to many new lines of investigation more or less directly associated with them, and, second, the creation by the Government of various new offices and bureaus for the prosecution of the work of the war. All of these new offices need library facilities in a greater or less degree and none are provided with them to the extent of their needs. This has put upon the established libraries of the Government the

responsibility of supplying their wants in so far as they are able and has of necessity greatly increased the volume of their work. Inquiries have been received in person and by telephone and letter. There has been a marked increase in the number of inquiries received by telephone from offices outside of the Department. When the Library has not been able to supply the required printed data, it has frequently been able to refer the inquirer to the office of the department which could supply the information.

As records are not kept of the reference use of the Library, it is not possible to give a complete list of all the Government offices outside of the Department which have used the Library for reference only, but, by means of the records kept at the loan desk, it is possible to mention a number of those which have borrowed books and periodicals from our collections.

The Food Administration has made frequent use of the facilities of the main Library and also of the branch libraries. Without the resources of our Library to draw upon it would have been considerably hampered in some of its research work, as it has had no appropriation for the purchase of books.

Among the new Government offices which have used the main Library and the branches may be mentioned the American University Experiment Station of the War Department, the Edgewood Arsenal and other branches of the Chemical War Service, the Committee on Public Information, the Federal Board for Vocational Education, the Division of Export Licenses, and other offices of the War Trade Board, various divisions and offices of the Council of National Defense, including the Women's Committee, the Shipping Board, and the War Industries Board.

Among the older offices which have used the Library may be noted the Army Medical School, Combustion and Repair Division of the Navy Department, the Federal Trade Commission, the Military Intelligence Office, the Food Division of the Surgeon General's Office, the Signal Corps, Ordnance Department and Engineers' Office of the War Department, the Department of Labor, the Department of Commerce, the Naval Hospital, Bureau of Mines, Geological Survey, Bureau of Standards, Hygienic Laboratory, Division of Textiles and other offices of the National Museum and Smithsonian Institution, and the Geophysical Laboratory.

In addition to the reference work done in answer to inquiries, a beginning has been made on an information file to supplement the catalogue of the Library. In this will be filed, by subject, printed and typewritten material of interest but of ephemeral value. While too new as yet to have proved its value, it is believed that the file will grow into a most useful reference tool, and that it will simplify the problem of making accessible material of current interest but not suitable for permanent cataloguing.

The reference work of the year and the demands for "up-to-theminute information" which the war has emphasized have demonstrated forcibly a need for information which can not be met by the catalogue, the information file of ephemeral material, or the various printed indexes. Many of the very special subjects on which inquiries were received were subjects on which little or no printed information was available and which would not, therefore, be included