The Washington herald., 1921-07-18
PL AIMING NEW ATTACK
ONMARKETING PROBL EN-
Economic Work Consolidated By Secretary
of Agriculture.
BY j.. CLYDE MARQUIS.

BY j. CLYDE hAhaUiss
The reorganization within the
Departrhent of Agriculture begun
in the consolidation of the bureaus
of Markets and Crop Estimates, Is
the first step toward new ar
rangement of the economic work OF
the department. The announcement
has been made that the ONCE Of
Farm Management will also be
combined with the enlarged bureau
of Markets and Crop Estimates and
the entire economic and marketing
work of the department readjusted
to the new requirements Of the sit
uation.
The developments which have led
up to this consolidation in govern
ment work illustrate the changes
in the economic questions as related
to agriculture during recent years.
The first work Of this character
done by the Department of Agri-
culture was the collection OF sta
tistics of crop conditions and pro-
duction by the old Bureau of Sta
tistics. This work was copied by
many States and for several years
the only facts concerning the vol
ume of agricultural production was
collected by the Bureau of Statis-
tics and the Federal Census.
As marketing problems became
more acute and the general dissat-
isfaction with our marketing sys-
tenn expressed itself. a movement
developed for Federal attention
to the subject Of marketing and the
organization of the Bureau of Mar
kets was the outcome. This bureau
hashad a very rapid growth dur
ing the last few years and its work
has expanded into the field of sta
tistics with particular reference to
market prices, distribution Of farm
products. rate of consumption of
foodstuffs, import and export trade.
etc. The passage of the several
important laws bearing upon mar
keting. such as the grain standards.
cotton futures and warehouse acts.
gave the Bureau OF Markets addi-
| tional duties and expanded its work
It was soon discovered that the
| collection Of statistics on crop pro-
duction was SO closely related to
facts needed by the Bureau of Mar
! kets that a consultation OF these
two bureaus was decided upon about
a year ago. The war experiences
| of the bureau convinced the Secre-
tary Of Agriculture that the general
economic questions involved called
for a new arrangement of all work
in agricultural economics.
Farm Management an outErewth.
The office of Farm Management
was an outgrowth of the study of
the business of individual farms.
first developed in the Bureau OF
Plant Industry and closely related
to the question of crop. selection
and arrangement Of farm rotations.
1t was-soon found. however. that
the prosperity Of an Individual farm
often depended more upon general
economic conditions of agriculture
than upon the arrangement OF the
details or the type of farming fol-
lowed. TIE result was that the Of
flee of Farm Management expanded
to take in studies OF agricultural
prices. land values. foreign de-
mand and supply. and many other
questions closely related to those
covered by the Bureau OF Markets.
In the development of agricul-
ture from the economic viewpoint
we have passed from the pioneer
period in which the individual farm
was largely dependent upon the
skill of the individual farmer in
adjusting his own business into a
period where farm products are de-
termined largely by conditions in
the consumption market Many OF
these are worldwide in their influ-
ence and must be studied by a gov
ernment organization because the
task is too large for the means at
the disposal OF any individual farm
er or group of farmers. It is a
matter of primary public interest
because OF the importance of the
national food supply and agricul-
ture as a producer of raw materials
for manufacture. While for thirty
wears we have been gathering sta.
tistics as tc crop production. there
has been nothing to measure the
rate of distribution or consumption
as it went along. Price making
factors in the world market have
been poorly understood and the gen.
eral result has been that agricul-
ture has been largely speculative
in that production has not been ad :
justed to consumption.
1t is not impossible that many of
the serious effects of the present
agricultural, depression might have
been avoided had we had available
sufficient information concerning
distribution and consumption OF
foodstuffs-- throughout the world
and a general knowledge Of the in
fluence of various of these factors
on market prices.
The new concept OF farm eco