Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-06-26

planted in Tennessee, and is able tc
give tair proof that his state,
ment deserves public confidence? By
no State or national census has
the number of acres planted In
cotton, corn, or wheat ever been re-
turned in Tennessee. With hofacts Of
this kind to base an opinion of increase
er decrease of ground cultivated In
these staple crops, what ie the intrinsic
value of any mani official, OF oficious,
gueso on this subject? 1t is unques-
tionably worth great deal less than
nothing, if it inspires confidence in
pretended knowledge where no conf
dence is deserved.
In 1910 President Harrison appoint.
ed a shrewd Connecticut Yankee Com
missioner of Patents, who commenced
the rather blind art of guessing him.
self and getting others in different
States to guess about a great many
things relating to crops, domestic ami
mails and husbandry generally. In
thirty-four years, the lifetime of
generation, this ridiculous guess-work
has not improved a particle; and for
the plain reason that no one can work
out problems in arithmetic truthfully
without better rule than a guess to
guide and control his operations. This
palpable defect in agricultural
statistics was pointed out in
the New York Legislature in
1881, and corrected in the State
census of 1916. But Congress has
never corrected the defects in the guess
work of Commissioners Ellsworth and
Burke in any subsequent census. There
are too many who appear to believe
that a false statement relating to
agriculture is just as good as a true
statement, if it be unfinchingly stuck
to. Eminent statisticians are ready to
swear that 81, 408, 521 acres were plant
ed IN cotton IN the aggregate in the
last four years; and that the total
yield was 15,457,l76 bales, being
fraction less than a half bale to the
acre.
Farmers are greatly mistaken if they
suppose this false system of industrial
statistics is doing them any good. 1t
lacks indispensable unit of area as APP
piled to land in any crop whatever.
How does Congress or its Department
of Agriculture get its unit of acreage?
When Government land is surveyed for
sale, instruments called a compass and
a chain with competent land surveyor
do the needful. Are the chain bearers
allowed to manufacture every link in
the chain, guess at the length OF each,
and perhaps have no two Of the same
length? This is precisely the
way that wise men in Con-
gress measure the acres annually plant
ed in cotton, corn and other crops, for
which farmers pay a round price, and
by which spectators often realize for
tunes. Mathematics can benefit agri-
culture quite as much as arithmetic
does banking and trading in a large
way. Guessing at quantities and num-
bers breeds and nourishes extreme sell
ishness and dishonesty. Hence fixed
standards of weights and measures
were necessity, and it still exists.
The growing wants of a growing peo-
pie demand to-day the extension of this
of exact measure to all indus
tries, their elements and products. We |
have contended for this plain rule forty
years, waiting patiently to see the pub
lie appreciate its usefulness. We be- |
lieve the time has come to learn what |
are the things that make bale of cot
ton, and where they come from. The |
of agriculture take, una
wide range. Students who |
pretend to study the facts and phenom-
ena of tillage, husbandry, and of the
increase Of fertility in one soil, and its
decrease in another, somehow fail to |
make any progress in their science, or
learning. Their system is wrong, and
their knowledge non-progressive.