Mr. JACOBSTEIN. Maximum results in what way?

Mr. OLSEN. In net returns. That may mean curtailing of production. At the present time we are getting out outlook reports to help the farmer.

Mr. RANKIN. An outlook report?

Mr. OLSEN. Yes.

Mr. WHITE. Is it not fair to presume that the information is as valuable on production to the farmer as it is to any one, or more so? Mr. OLSEN. We think it is exceedingly important to the working out of ways and means whereby the farmer can increase his efficiency as they do in industry, and increased efficiency does enter into the farming business. We are devoting a lot of time to the marketing of products. We have a division of the department, the bureau of cooperative marketing. We have commodity divisions studying problems in commodity marketing; and others studying questions of demand to find how the consumer varies in his consumption, whether he prefers this product against another product and under what conditions he will take one commodity as against another. The emphasis in our bureau is on that side. We can not ignore the production side. The two go together.

Mr. WHITE. When the 1930 census is completed and you put out a volume on agriculture, what do you think is the material that the farmer is going to be especially interested in?

Mr. OLSEN. In that volume?

Mr. WHITE. Yes.

Mr. OLSEN. I do not know that I can foresee that.

Mr. RANKIN. What will be the high spot? Does he want to know how many acres, how many tons are being produced, or does he want to see what the income has been to the farmers of the United States? Is he not interested in income more than ever before?

Mr. OLSEN. This census data coupled with other data is used in getting figures in so far as we can get them on income. It is basic data. It is simply part of the blocks that make up the picture.

Take the question of the age of fruit trees. In the peach industry farmers are planting peach trees indiscriminately without reference to whether markets will take peaches at remunerative prices. We have had our statisticians make surveys of the age of peach trees and these studies indicate that farmers in some areas are planting in the face of disastrous conditions a few years ahead. These trees come to maturity in a certain number of years and will bear a certain volume of fruit of which you can approximate the amount. The farmer is interested in this information because it does show him what kind of competition he will be up against.

Mr. JACOBSTEIN. In another section of the country your Department of Agriculture may be teaching the farmer to raise peaches. Mr. OLSEN. That is true.

Mr. JACOBSTEIN. The farmers in my State rooted up thousands of peach trees when they came to maturity.

Mr. OLSEN. In that connection I will make the point that I think it is profitable for the farmer to use the best varieties of peaches or wheat, whatever it might be, and absolutely the best cultural processes available. We find in our studies of farm income, and we devote a great deal of time to it, that the farmers who use the best varieties

and best cultural methods, fruit spraying, etc., are likely to get the highest net returns. It is a case of producing products in the proper way to get results.

The CHAIRMAN. Is not the subject we are discussing now more a matter for the Department of Agriculture than the Census Bureau? Mr. JACOBSTEIN. In recommending to be included in the census that information we ought to have in mind just what it is that helps the people for whom we are getting the information. Heretofore I think this material has been of interest to outsiders, perhaps. I am thinking now when we spend any money in taking the census of agriculture, we ought to, at least, reveal that information which is most essential to the welfare of the farmer. That is how I would feel if I were a farmer. I am not a farmer but I am looking after his interests in this matter.

Mr. OLSEN. I think the census is providing information that is important to the farmer.

Mr. JACOBSTEIN. Thus far I have not seen any strong statement on the question of distribution which leads me to feel that is true. I hope I am mistaken. When I look at the 1930 census I do not want to find data or information of interest exclusively to the chain stores or the city fellow who is seeking to know where the markets

are.

Mr. OLSEN. I am in sympathy with that suggestion and I feel that the census is reaching out to get the information available. Mr. JACOBSTEIN. I am using you as a funnel to talk to the census. Mr. RANKIN. Where are you from? Where do you live? Mr. OLSEN. Before I came to the department?

Mr. RANKIN. Yes.

Mr. OLSEN. From Illinois.

Mr. RANKIN. You are virtually at the head of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics?

Mr. OLSEN. Mr. Tenny is chief of the bureau and I am assistant chief and have charge of research.

Mr. RANKIN. Where is Mr. Tenny from?

Mr. JACOBSTEIN. In my county, in western New York.

Mr. OLSEN. Western New York.

Mr. RANKIN. Who else is in that bureau?

Mr. OLSEN. We have a great many people.

Mr. RANKIN. Who controls it?

Mr. OLSEN. We have policies under which we work that are in conformity with those agreed to by the Secretary of Agriculture and the chief of the bureau is the administrator of those policies.

Mr. RANKIN. You stated you had an outlook report you were going to give out. What does that propose to cover?

Mr. OLSEN. That outlook report brings together for the various commodities all of the data available on the supply and demand for those commodities.

Mr. RANKIN. That is another one of your guessing forecasts?

Mr. OLSEN. It is a report. Sometimes there is an attempt to indicate that there may be a rise or decline in prices of one commodity as against another.

Mr. RANKIN. In other words, you embarked in the last year on a policy of giving out these forecasts of prices and amounts of commodities available and you did that on cotton earlier in the season. I want to know what authority you have for making that report?

Mr. OLSEN. That authority is contained in appropriation acts which authorized the department to collect and interpret and disseminate information fundamental to the interest of the farmer.

Mr. RANKIN. Getting back to the interests of the farmer, back in the early part of the season this Bureau of Agricultural Economics that you represent here took it upon itself to give out a report, the inevitable consequence of which was to depress the price of cotton then in the field. It gave its boll-weevil report, which I have never been able to find any authority for in law, minimizing the boll-weevil ravages throughout the country. I wonder if you knew at that time the boll weevil was cutting the crop in some sections of the South 50 per cent, and if so why was not that included in the alleged boll-weevil report?

Mr. OLSEN. I can not speak for the Bureau of Entomology. They issue that report.

Mr. RANKIN. That was not given out by the Bureau of Agricultural Economics?

Mr. OLSEN. No; the Bureau of Entomology handles that question. Mr. RANKIN. A little later the Bureau of Agricultural Economics did give the farmer another very serious black eye from which he has not recovered by giving out one of these outlook prognostications and saying to the world that the price of cotton was going to decline. Why was that given out?

Mr. OLSEN. Let me go back.

Mr. RANKIN. Are you responsible for that report?

Mr. OLSEN. Personally?

Mr. RANKIN. Yes; did you make that report?

Mr. OLSEN. Did I personally?

Mr. RANKIN. Yes.

Mr. OLSEN. No.

Mr. RANKIN. Did you have anything to do with that report? Mr. OLSEN. I was not in the city at the particular time that report was issued but I do not disclaim any connection with the report issued by the bureau as part of their program. Those reports have been issued, our outlook report, since 1922.

Mr. RANKIN. You gave that report out before.

Mr. OLSEN. That particular report?

Mr. RANKIN. No.

Mr. OLSEN. These particular reports you refer to are called price situation reports and have been issued by the bureau at least for the last two and a half years.

Mr. RANKIN. Do you mean to tell the committee that the Department of Agriculture has before issued forecasts of the kind and prices of farm commodities when they were being put on the market?

Mr. OLSEN. We have issued from time to time this monthly report.

Mr. RANKIN. Will you get them and insert them in the record if it ever was done.

Mr. OLSEN. I will be glad to give you copies of the reports.

and best cultural methods, fruit spraying, etc., are highest not returns. It is a case of producing prod way to get results.

The CHAIRMAN. Is not the subject we are discu matter for the Department of Agriculture than the Mr. JACOBSTEIN. In recommending to be inclu that information we ought to have in mind just w· the people for whom we are getting the informat think this material has been of interest to outside thinking now when we spend any money in ta agriculture, we ought to, at least, reveal that in most essential to the welfare of the farmer. T. tool if I were a farmer. I am not a farmer but I interests in this matter.

Mr. Ouses. I think the census is providing important to the farmer.

Mr. JACORSPRIN. Thus far I have not seen & the question of distribution which leads m I hope I am mistaken. When I look at the . want to find data or information of interest ex stores or the city fellow who is seeking to kno

Ms. Casey. I am in sympathy with that that the census is reaching out to get the info Mr. Jacessary. I am using you as a fun M: Maxxx. Where are you from? Wher Me Piary. Before I came to the departm. M. MANKIN te

at out it went into the head lines. know that it would have the effect id would tend to depress the price who was producing it?

rized to collect all the data ournental material we can not collect use the very best available outside s that the farmer must know about. frank with you in the beginning, ople throughout the United States, tural Economics is going to pursue s to depress the price of their farm do them the most harm, that they of the Department of Agriculture

have studied these outlook reports r at least three years. You do not You object to giving them out at the Affected.

there in April, 1923, and gave out acres of cotton that the farmers in, and I will say inflated it advisedly. ,000,000 acres more than they planted

→ not advisedly. If there was any ine result of error, not willful error.

t they overestimated the amount of cotton million bales up to October or November of millions of dollars. We passed a law to ted whether they had any right under the casts and we passed a law that year in order year when we had gone through the depresre making a small crop, these official reports O were given out by the Bureau of Agrid cost our farmers hundreds of millions of they are going to give out forecasts. I want y for giving them out, where they get the legal n it is proposed to give out these forecasts. port is in preparation now, and I suppose it e latter part of next week or the beginning of e I am safe in saying there will be no forecast