The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-07-30

| Michigan upon the locality Of its production.
| He continues:
'That Mr.. Burke made no such error, MIR.
| Ewbank had ample proof in the very document in
which his compiler pretends to have discovered it,
In making up table of It'd estInated value of all
the productions of labor in the United States MIR
Burke put down the ichole ioheat crop of the United
States at - 10 per tushe-very the average
market price on the Atlantic seaboard. II was
from this table that Mr.. Ewbank's compiler took
his price for the wheat crop Of Michigan II he had
taken pains to examine the report of Mr. b. little
more closely, he would have found table showing
the prices Of various grains (wheat among the
number) in every State, and in many counties in
each State of the Union the very spot where the
grain was harvested. In that table he would have
found the prices for Michigan and for various
counties in Michgan-thus showing that Mr..
Burke never imagined estimated that the value
of the wheat produced by the farmers of that State
was s 10 per bushe on the spot where it was pro-
duced."
Now, if the wheat crop of Michigan was n
part of the whole wheat crop of the United
States, then MIR. BURKE has done, by the adj
mission Of his volunteer defender, precisely
what is attributed to him in the report of his
| successor That he furnished the means of
partial correction for this error in other parts of
this report, is doubtless true. The case lies
here: Mr.. BURKE made tabular estimate of the
value Of the agricultural products of the country,
in which each is set down at or very near the
average market price on the Atlantic seaboard
Successive reports from the Patent Office had
been scattered broadcast over the nation, made
up upon the same principle. In declining to
follow this example, the compiler of the report
which we have been publishing felt himself
bound to assign some reason for disappointing the
public expectation, which had been excited by
the practice of his predecessor. 1t is found in the
fact that no reliable means exist in the absence
of census, for estimating the quantity Of the
various crops with any degree of accuracy.
In illustration of the errors which the fabri-
cation of statistics by mere guessing necessarily
involves, the fact is cited that the wheat crop of
Michigan was estimated in the Patent Office
report at more than twice the quantity which
subsequent census, taken under the authority of
that State, showed it to have been. In this
connexlon, 1t was very proper to call attention
to the fact that the mode of estimating its value
was erroneous In nearly the same proportion
Upon the same plan the entire corn crop of the
country was estimated at ffty-nine cents 4
bushel, as well in the western as the Atlantic
States; though it is known that millions of
bushels of it yield to the producer only fifteen
and twenty cents. The aggregate deductions
which ought to be made from Mr.. BuRKE's es-
innate of the results of agricultural labor for the
year, from this method Of calculation, are recb-
oned at about one thousand million of dollars
If this fact disparages his labors, it may be re-
GREETED, but seems unavoidable If he was com
PEELED to adopt such method of estimating the
value of crops, by reason Of the comparative
ease in consulting the prices-current of the great
Atlantic ports and the immense difficulty of get
ting at their price al the respective points of pro-
ducton, 1t may serve in some measure to ex-
cuse him, but furnishes no reason for following
an example which can only tend to misead the
country.
1t is not uncharitabe to suppose that Mr.
BURKE was easily reconciled to a mode of COM
putation which sweled his aggregates to such
magnificent sums He was a jealous advocate
of the policy of doing the utmost possible of our
trading with foreigners. He labored assiduously
to impress upon the agriculturists the notion
that large market abroad was absolutely ne
cessary for a vent to their surplus productions,
and that they must purchase it by encouraging
the importation of foreign manufactures. To
this end it was highly desirable to represent the
value of their crops as being vastly beyond
the wants of their countrymen as it was pos
sble for figures to go with any chance for ere
dence. 1t was great point, therefore, TO in
clude in their represented values all the charges
for freight and insurance, Sc, which they sus-
tanned on their way 10 the Atlantic coast. The
Patent Office Report was a powerful instrut-
ment for this purpose Its brief tabular sum
maries of the value of the different products of
labor were copied into thousands of newspa-
pers, and perused by millions of readers, who
received its figures as reliable evidence Of the
amount which the cultivators of the soil con.
tributed to the wealth of the nation.
These figures were everywhere made the
text for essays in favor of foreign trade and for
dissertations upon the comparative littleness of
the manufacturing interests. They served at
one and the same time to magnify the powers
anu lit htCtSSlAltSo VI th'
in vast disproportion to the real facts. If not
framed with express view to such use, their
adaptation to it was discovered and not made
fruitless by neglect.
We can imagine few items Conformation that
would be more instructive than an authentic
comparison of the value Of so much Of the raw
material Of food and clothing as is exported at
the points where it is loaded on ship aboard, with
its value at the spots where il was first severed
from the soil that yielded it. We should then
know how much the farmer and planter re-
tanned of the nominal money prices Of his com
modities which figure in the tables of exports,
and how much of it was wasted in the expenses
Of transportation and exchange. If we could
then arrive at the true amount of capital and
labor employed, and compare it with the return
secured we shnuld he i'm n situation IN goo nj