The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-06-13
For the Good of
 the Community

States department of agriculture to en- courage that industry by more thorough and accurate collection and dissemination of crop data and market conditions.
 The peanut crop in the United States in 1918 totalled about 56,000,000 bushels. The yield in Alabama was 17,470000 bush els or approximately 31 per cent of the yield of the entire country. The estimated value of the entire crop was S100, ,000000
 Therefore, it will readily be seen that what ever affects the Virginia Carolina product will affect the Alabama product, event to greater extent because of the greater yield in the state.
 A delegation representing the Virginia Carolina Peanut Growers association held conference with the chiefs of the bureaus of crop estimates and markets of the United States department of agriculture, and of this conference the committee re- ports:
 Despite it's importance as food and feed crop, it has long been neglected by the govern ment and by the agricultural agencies of the sev- earl states There is no crop of the importance of the peanut that has had so little attention paid to 1t by government agencies. Hundreds of thou sands of dollars, for instance, have been spent on apples, which have no greater value than peanuts, while the entire amount spent on peanuts by the federal government is only few thousand dol lars.
 '"The industry has now reached stage where it is absolutely necessary to have government as- sistance, not only to insure it's proper develop +o p+op fc
 "The assistance that is most urgently needed is an accurate crop estimate and market news serv- ice. The present form of crop estimates is being used to injure the grower and depress the market The conditions are such that commercial crop estimate is absolutely essential to the greatly in- creased acreage in the southern states It is est- mated that over 50 per cent is used for forage, "hogging- off as it is called and great per cent of the rest is used for oil Peanuts used for these purposes do not come in competition with pea nuts, which are marketed to be eaten as nuts
 "However, the present crop estimates do not differentiate between these uses, and therefore buyers use the estimates to beat down the market, insisting that all this great increase has to be handled by the manufacturers and that the big crop has knocked the bottom out of the market. What is needed an estimate that will give us the actual marketable surplus, showing the amount used for forage, the amount used for oil and the amount marketed as peanuts.
 ''This matter has been taken up with MT. Est- brook, chief of the bureau of crop estimates who informs us that it is impossible to take on work under his present funds. He advises how ever that he could put on the desired service with an additional appropriation of $12,OOO and that the same machinery set up with this money could give commercial estimates on beans, COW peas, soy beans and velvet beans. These crops with pea nuts aggregate a value of $25OOOO,OOO, and commercial estimate on them would be of ncal- culable benefit to each crop.
 Certainly the appropriation requested is most moderate, in view of the value of the service. At present the bureau of crop estimates has only $3500 to be spent on all these crops, and of this amount only $700 is spent on peanuts.
 ''The information furnished by market news service is second in importance only to the crop estimates. At present there is no source of price information in regard to peanuts. The growers have to rely absolutely what the buyer tells him the crop is worth. This creates condition that is most discouraging and destructive to the indus try This condition would be remedied and the o,,+;ro ;od,,c+rv hanpfited hy market naus snrv-