The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1889-01-04
FIELD. FARM AND GARDEN.
PRACTICAL INFORMAL ON ON A VA
RlETv OF TIMELY SUBJECTS.

The System In Vogue ny the Agricultural
Department In Making tie Monthly and
Annual Reports of the Country's Crops
Explained.
Many persons do not fully understand
the system in vogue by the agricultural
department in the monthly and annual
reports emanating from that source, and
inquiries are often made as to tho basis
or unit OF the percentage returns. This
Is explained by the statistician as being
simply the application Of the decimal
system OF the measure Of money, as it
is used in the United States. to the accu-
rate expression of crop estimates.
In comparisons of area with that of a
previous crop, 100 represents the average
Of the previous year. In product the
present may DO compared with that of
the previous year, or with an average
yield, 100 being the basis in each case.
In reports OF condition" OF growing
crops 100 is the standard of full condi-
ton, representing healthfulness, exemp-
ton from injury from insects, drought
or other cause, with average growth of
development. Condition OF crop can
never go above 100, except from one
cause; unusual or extraordinary devel-
opment and vigor of plant which more
than counterbalances any deficiency in
the stand or other loss. AS a rule tho
existence of local drought, destruction
by storm or floods, insect injuries or
blights, one or more operates to reduce
the average condition i'm the latter part
of the season.
AS an example, cotton is plant that
needs much sunshine and high tempera-
ture, with moist but not saturated soil
and an evenly distributed rainfall. II
also has several species of insect enemies.
Therefore the averages of condition are
quite sure to fall after the June and July
investigation, as the results of fruiting
are developed sometimes as low as GO
in October in the worst years.
What does the condition 100 mean i'm
bushels or bales? 1t is easy to say for any
district or state what full crop as rep
resented by 100 should produce as ascer-
tanned by records of past productions
compared with the harvest averages of
each year. 1t is easy to calculate the
present expectation from any reported
average. But the crop does not remain
stationary, and the final result may he
much below 100, when the product
should be compared with the latest aver
age and not with the record of an earlier
month.
In county where full crop of corn
Is ~ bushels, 100 means prospect for
crop of 30 bushels; 90 means an expecta-
ton of 81 bushels; 20, of 81 bushels. and
in similar proportion with other percent
ages. 1t 20 bushels is a full crop, 30
means n prospect of Is bushels. There
are districts where 40 bushels may be
taI fttIl In, Il,
would mean 30 bushels. In wheat there
are regions where bushels may be indi-
Gated by 100, and other districts where
20 bushels may be thus indicated. In
these instances IS would mean G and 10
bushels respectively.
The equivalent value of 100 in Il gen.
eral crop average must, therefore, he
calculated with painstaking accuracy
from the local equivalent values, which
are the clements of this national average.
Should the acreage of one year contain
"a larger proportion of poor lands than
another, 100 would mean less in conse-
quence.
The old newspaper plan of crop report
Ing, still practiced in some quarters, as
sumes to have standard of comparison,
which is an average" crop. Having de-
cided on what is an average, the report
is made in language something like this:
Barely an average; fairly good: moder-
ate; middling: light; variable; very poor;
Indifferent; promising; much above
very good; heavy crop, and
every imaginable form of expression,
utterly impossible of formulation in
figures, because nine men out of ten
might give different percentage value
to nearly all of them.
Some reporters, however, estimate in
definite proportions, as half, two-thirds,
or three-fourths of an average crop. This
IS correct in principle but not sufficiently
close. In the experience of the depart
ment the average of any ten years has
been found to be very close to that of
any other ten years. In wheat it is usu-
ally fraction above twelve bushels per
acre in any similar period taken. In
corn it varies little from twenty-six
bushels.
Mildew and TO. In Grapes.