Evening star., 1895-04-16
THE CROP REPORTS.
The Conference Adopts Recommends
tiOnS and AdjOurns.

tions and Adjourns.
The convention of commercial organiza-
tions which has been considering the i'm
provement of the crop reports adjourned
today after adopting many suggestions as
to means by which the crop reporting ser
vice of the Department Of Agriculture may
be improved and the official results made
more satisfactory to the public. 1t was the
opinion of the conference that the official
crop reporting service should be continued.
and that the reports now regularly issued
be continued. 1t was recommended that in
all reports concerning acreage of the va
rious crops reported upon the department
give the area by states in acres, as well as
by the percentage of the previous years
area.
1t was also recommended that the depart
ment discontinue the employment of sal
aried state agents in the regular crop re-
porting work, and that arrangements be
perfected with the United States consular
service for sending by cable to the depart
ment on or about the 9th of each month
q statement giving the best available in
formation concerning prospects for crops
of grain and cotton in their respective dis
tricts.
Yesterday Afternoons Session.
At the later session Of the crop report
convention in the Interstate commerce COM
missions court room yesterday papers
were read by b. W. Snow, B. F. Howard
and J. B. Brown. Mr.. Snow, who was
formerly assistant statistician Of the de-
partment, said that the weakness in the
present machinery is the paucity of data
used in the making up of the reports, and
the assumption that a single man Is able
to answer accurately for whole country.
Instead of one return from county there
should be one or more returns from every
civil division of the county, thus limiting
each mans answer to the district imme-
diately under his eye and with which he
is personally familiar Instead of 2,OO0
scattered returns each pretending to rep
resent whole county, there should be
$1,000. These reporters should be farmers.
Another corps should be organized from
among local millers in each county, and
still another from local grain dealers.
Mr.. Brown. in his paper, said the govern
ment crop reports once were accepted as
accdrate. but they now fell fat. He had
noticed that in states where the Farmers
Alliance was best organized and maintain
ed there were the greatest errors in the
reports.
Statistician Robinson of the department
read an exhaustive paper upon the sub
ject of gathering crop reports in foreign
countries.
Different Plans Discussed.
The proposition of Mr.. Stone was at
tackled by several members, who said that
bankers would be so directly interested
that they might be influenced in making
these reports. Secretary Morton suggested
that if banker held mortgages on several
tracts Of land all over the country he
would certainly report good crops on these
lsrds.
Mr.. Davis suggested that the reports
should come from township assessors, who
would report to the county auditors, who
should report direct to the Agricultural
Department.
Mr.. B. A. Snow, formerly assistant
statistician of the department, said such
method had been tried ten years ago and
he could say that, whatever criticism
might be passed upon the crop reports of
the Department of Agriculture. either now
or in the past these reports were far
superior to any ever made by assessors.
The systems of assessors were SO different
In the various states that their reports
would be simply crazy patchwork.
In answer to an inquiry by Mr. Ray, Mr..
Robinson said he was not sure whether
agents in the various counties were known
to one another. In some instances he sup
posed they We're. He also said that the de-
Lartment changed agents If they were
fCrnd sending incorrect raporfS