Americus times-recorder., 1918-01-08
INTEREST IN NEW AGRICUTVRAL
OFFICE

new line OF work has been OPEN
ed in the South within the past few
weeks by he United States Department
Of Agriculture A permanent Office
has been established in Atlanta under
c w. Chewing This new office
is carrying on what is known as al
Market News Service, which is in
realty statement of daily quotations
from practically every market in the
country, showing essential market
conditions on fruits and vegetables.
This information covers the following
commodities:
Apples, asparagus, cabbage, canta-I
Foupes, celery, cherries, grapes, let
tuce, onions, peaches, pears, sweet po-
tatoes, white potatoes, strawberries, to-
matoes. watermelons, beans, oranges,
grapefruit, tangerines, mandarins, snap
beans, pepers, egg plans.
No one unfamiliar with this work,
realizes the great amount of energy
and detail necessary in order to pub
lish this information on the same day
the market report themselves cover.
In order to handle the great volume
of work, it has been necessary for the
| government to establish leased tele,
graph wire circuits, and to have
double shift of telegra.-.ah cc..s. Ine
wires are Dusv from five o'clock in
the morning until five o'clock at night
and information is being transmit
4 ted all the time. When it is realized
( that practically all of this information
is handled in cipher, which cuts down
the volume of words $500 per cent
and the fires are busy twelve hours
it can be seen that a great deal of
valuable information is being dis
seminated from the Atlanta office. The
United States Department of Agricul-
tllre has atllese leased wires in some
thirty of forty permanent market sta
tions, and the entire Office force spends
practically all of its time in handling
information covering shipemnts and
market conditions Of perishable fruits
and vegetables. This information is
the most up-to-date and concise that
has ever been published, either by
private or public institutions, as it
requires an excellent piece of ma
chinery well trained in every respect,
to know the number of cars of each
crop shipped out of each state every
day. and to know what these crops
are bringing on the principal markets
daily.
In order TO handle the information,
it has been necessary for the depart
ment to arrange with the railroads
wire every midnight to the Washing
ton office, showing the number of cars
Of these various crops that have
originated on their roads during the
previous tweDty-four hours, together
with their destinations. This informa-
ton is then assembled in Washington
and relayed to the departments vari-
Gus Offices before nine o'clock the
following morning The man in
charge of the market stations secure
their quotations by getting out on the
markets with the opening of business,
and personally interviewing the yari-
Gus firms buying and selling these ar
ticles, By talking to the various
members of the trade and seeing ac-
tqal sales made, these men are bound
to know exactly what the market con-
ditions are, the prices, quality and
condition of the stock, and the trad
ing tendencies. This information Is
then sent over the government leased
wires to the Washington office. where!
it is resent over the various wire
circuits which are all iooped up With
the Washington Office,
These circuits are established in
the East, taking in the cities in thci
middle Atlantic states. in the North, /
taking in the Northern cities; in the
South, taking in such markets as Riy-l
! md r41an Fg-1y