The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1903-11-13
AJOB TO GET CROP NEWS
UNCLE SAM HAS 10000 MEN
WORKING At IT.

Many Postmastsrs and Railroad
Agents SO Employed-Also a Lot Of
Judges and at Least one Ex-oovern.
Or-Nelshborhood Talk the Basis Of
the Report.
Modern crop reporting has two OBJ
jects. One Of these Is to furnish
summary OF the crop situation each
month prior 20 the harvest and the
other IS to compile q complete and au-
theUtic record OF the number Of bush
elg of every kind OF farm product
gathered each season. Deviating from
these two governmental plans Of crop
reporting are the hundreds Of varied
methods supported by grain and stock
brokers'.
hot only the Wall Street brokers,
but also the railroads, the cattlemen
and the exporters have a special in
torest In crop news, declares the New
York Sun It Is said that nine-tenths
Of the people Of the United States are
directly concerned with the outcome
OF the wheat and corn crop.
Property in thousands Of western
towns goes up and down, just as the
crops are grown, and merchants ex-
pcrl,nce prosperous OF dull times ac-
cording to the size Of The crops In
their neighborhood.
TIE basis of the crop reporting sys'
'em Is the greeting Of one farmer TO
arother: How is your wheat, johns?
His reply is given to some one else,
the news finally gets into town, and
there the correspondent OF the govern
ment draws his own conclusions and
telegraphs them to the agricultural de-
pertinent.
III the same locality may be cor
re- pendent of some firm Of brokers.
His opinion as to the crop may be dif-
ferent from that of the government,
as 1t often is, and difference Of opin'
ion and an uncertainty about the crops
in that region will exist in Wall
Street
Sometimes this difference of opinion
in local observers may extend over an
entire wheat belt, where millions OF
bushels are grown annually. Such a
condition once prevailed in North Da-
kota, and firm of spectators in Chi
cago sent a trained export into the
| field to make examinations. 1t cost
them $4,000 to learn his opinions,
which proved to he wrong, causing
them to lose $4,000 by buying wheat.
While the government agents may
| err in their estimates they generally
come nearer to the situation than any
one else. In the first place, they are
chosen for their disinterestedness and
the moment one is caught dabbling in
the grain market, buying grain or in
teresting himself in the marketing of
grain, he is discharged.
He may not lose any sleep on this
account, for the job is without COM
pensation of any great value, but 1t
goes to show that Uncle Sam desires
only impartial reporters on his large
staff.
In many towns the postmaster acts,
sometimes the railroad agent, and in
Indiana a governor or the state, Mr..
Mount, served, both prior to and dur
ing his term, as a crop reporter for
Montgomery county.
In Oklahoma the weather bureau OBJ
servers act as crop reporters, and un-
der the director of the bureau are
about 200 additional reporters, consist
ing mainly of railroad agents. In
Kansas, the postmasters act as rule
and very often the county judge OF
some other person of prominence and
unquestioned integrity.
The government in Washington &C
cepts the authority Of no one person
for the crop situation in any commun
ity In all there are 100000 reporters
in the crop service. There are 80 spe
cial observers stationed in variOu!
parts of the country. Each of these has
several hundred reporters under his
charge.
The observers make as nearly cor
rect reports as possible, but in tn,
same neighborhood are others who ar,
sending in crop reports directly to tai
secretary of agriculture IN fact, in CIV
cry township there is some specia
correspondent who sends in reports Il
the government about the condition o
growing crops
1t is the most complete system o
veri6cation afforded anywhere. TIL
telegraph toll paid by the governmen
in a season runs into The hundreds q