The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-02-17
FIGURES ON COTTON
rNaUrRY BEFORE CoMMTTTEE OF THE HOUSE.
Aceuracv of the Goyernment Reports Testified to By several PerroDs-- Hayex. Taylor and Jordan
 Are Heard.

washington. Feb. 16.--"Gentlemen cotton Is king today. Cotton statis- tics are now on trial"
 with thase words, Chairman Wads- worth of the House committee on agri- , culture opened the general hearing on | crop statistics before his committee to- day, Assistant Secretary Hayes. of the department of agriculture; President Harvie Jordan. of the Southern Cotton l Association, Atlanta, Ga: ]. A. Taylor. president of the National Ginners As-
 sociation. Dallas. Texas, and many other Southern members of Congress-.
 representing planters. were at the | hearing.
 Assistant Hayes was the first speak
 CT. He gave in detail the plan of the 1 department of agriculture for gather 1! ing statistics. and changes recently , made in the system of the bureau Of
 statistics. He said the department pro-
 posed to retain the crop-reporting
 board; to have 2.S0o county reporting agents: forty-one district agents and
 several supervising Inspectors who shaIf travel and instruct district agents. Different codes were to be furnished each district agent monthly and the agents reports are to be given to computers in sections to avoid the possibility of leakage.
 with perfected reports, Mir. Hayes said the markets would be less affected. Frequent and accurate reports would work against the speculator, he said. and the weather bureau reports will furnish a guide as to conditions for the time between reports.
 Mir. Hayes said the department of ag- ricuIture would be benefited greatly I by having more agricultural statistics at its command. He said an acreage census should be- taken every five years and would be of great assistance to the cros, estimating board. |. When asked about the accuracy of | the cotton estimates for last year, Mir.
 Hayes said that judged by statistics In ginning the cotton the report was with l in two per cent~of the actual produc- | tior.
 roll makes his yearly report on the re James R MacCol, President of tn,
 New England Cotton Manufactured Association. said a uniform bale
 should be agreed upon for use in com putation as the various bales confuse reports and encourage wild specula tion. He urged that in giving out { condition report figures should not b. given but the crop should be .describ
 cd merely as fair" poor" etc. Al condition reports are spec ilationi rather than positive facts, he said i is wrong for the department to nam' a fixed amount. MT. NMacCol saic
 he Favored & cotton estimate abou December lst to come out on. the sam' day with the ginners report. but de nounceds the Keep Commission plar to have seven reports a year and sait a multiplicity of reports would en
 courage speculation and keep the mar ket constantly disturbed.
 President Taylor of the Nationa Cotton Ginners Association congratu
 lated the department of agricultur, l on It's cotton reports and said tn. total should be quite accurate but tn, reports on separate states had varies
 greatly and consequently the specula tors had availed themselves of the dis crepanoies, Mir. Taylor said the de pertinent admitted that it takes th' reports of four or five correspondenti
 In the South in preference to the re ports of all other correspondents. - I He urged that the ginning report O the census bureau and the cotton pro
 duetion report of the department O