The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-16
HOW CROP REPORT
 IS GATHERED
WHO DOES WORK ON GOVERN MENT's MONTHLY ESTIMATES.
Most of It Done for Nothing-Wide Ramifcations of Complex sys- tem-Farmers, Merchants, Mill
 lers, Dealers in Farm Imple-
 ments Among Contributors.
Washington Special to New York Evening

 ments Among Contributors.
 Washington Special to New York Evening Post.
 /rhe general agrihu1tural crop report which goes out from this city today has been much more elaborately compiled than its predecessors were a dozen years ago. In the old days. the collation. of these statistics was so very lame tn places as to justify the harshest criticism passed upon the results. Congress then discovered that more money was needed; but though 1t has lately raised the sta tistical office in the Department of Agri- cultuNe to the dignity of a bureau and in- creased It's appropriation $1500O, this has not enabled the adoption of ideal meth ods yet. and the improvement of the ser- vice Is to be credited rather to the energy of the internal administration than to any direct encouragement from outside. Complexities of the System. The system under which the crop con- ditions are gathered for the monthly re- ports has extensive qualifications. At the bottom of everything stands a group of unpaid correspondents who report direct ly to Washington. There are about 2.OOo agricultural counties in the United States. each of which contains one correspon- dent, and an average of three sub-cor- respondents. Here sare 5000 men, mostly | farmers, who make the County the geo. graphical unit in reporting, and who re- port monthly. Another set of monthly re- ports come from 40,000 correspondents of | the same class, who make their respec- tive precincts or magisterial districts the unit. Once or twice year the Depart ment applies to a list of about 100000 | farmers scattered everywhere. for reports l on their own farms exclusively. No one | of these correspondents Is on any two oto hat fhnx oil a upon each other.
 On cotton. reports are received from | about 12,000 merchants and bankers in the 1 South, and also from a large list of cot
 ton ginners. In the North. corresp onding reports on the hardy grains are received from millers and elevator managers. The | aggregate of these business men in both | sections who are called on for reports | would not fall far short of 250,0O0. These | reports are not tabulated in a mass, but according to classes. The trend of self interest. the warp of mind. and all the | elements that enter into the personal | equation, play a large part in determin- l ing the weight to be given to each. 1 Correspondents Who are Paid With | Seed.
 1 The next stratum of newsgatherers con sists of the correspondents, three in each | country who report to the State statisti- cal agents. The correspondents are most ly farmers, who work without cash com l pensation, but to whom the Department makes liberal allowance of seed every 1 year, and sends such Government publi- cations as they especially desire. The | State statistical agents, of whom 1t Is | the plan to have one for each State, are paid from $3O0 to $9O0 year for about a l weeks work in every month. They are | not tied down to the tabulatfon of the | material furnished by their county cor respondents, but have the largest possi
 ble latitude in the exercise of their in- dividual judgments.
 l These agents are men of character and standing. ,-he latest appointee was for
 North Carolina, and Secretary Wilson | chose a man who had not been recom- mended by either Senator or by any O. the party leaders, but about whom he
 knew very well himself-the professor
 of agriculture in the State Agricultural
 College. In some parts of the South the
 present State statistical agents were ap-
 pointed by prior Administrations, includ' ing ex-Governor Nortnen of Georgia and General Lane of Alapama. The aim Is to
 exclude political considerations in choos- ing men for these places.
 The Paid Travelling Agents.
 The next higher stage is that occupied by the special field agents-the travelng force, who receive S a day while. In ac- Iual SeTVlCe, anu LHclI lCNCooaAy OAPSAASSN The first of these agents was appointed four years ago. There are now six, who are out all the time, and two or three other experts who are called upon when needed. The creation of their office was
 due to the sad discrepancies which ap-
 peared for a while between the Depart 1 ment's reports and the harvests that fol
 lowed Their jurisdictions are fixed geo
 graphically and modified only when theil
 number is increased and 1t Is necessary tt
 take away part of the States hitherto as
 signed to one agent and group them witt
 others to make up district for new
 agent
 The duties of the field agents, broadly
 speaking consist in moving about within
 their own districts during the growing
 season. and gathering information from
 any source accessible to them. They
 consult not only farmers and planters
 but dealers in farm implements ano
 machinery. merchants. bankers, etc The
 idea is to give them the largest possible
 scope so that they can form their Judg
 ments on the comments Of men on Dotf
 sides of the crop question, those who
 would profit most by low prices for farm
 products as well as those who would lik'
 to see quotations sail skyward.
 The travelling experts have proved z
 great success The Department would
 like to get more of them, and has beer
 urged to do so by the Investigating com
 mittee of the National Board of Trade
 but. of course, unless thoroughly com
 petent men can be found for the places
 there Is no use of employing any; anc the competent men who are willing tC
 work for the pay the Department is pre-
 pared to give them are not very many
 The recent increase of $15,OO0 does not g(
 far of itself in helping to swell the mum l Der of eligibles.
 General Policy of the Department.
 There is no personal clashing between the State statistical agents and thu special field agents; because, although
 their jurisdictions lap, they are wholly
 independent of each other. and do no
 consult The Department, moreover, dis
 courages any such intimacy between then ! as would cause one class to reveal thu nature of their reports to the other. Thii Is its general policy with respect to all it. ] correspondents and agents in the stattsti cal field. It wishes each mans mind t' } be unbiased by what another mal may have written, and it als wishes to use one as checl
 ubon the other all along the line. In