Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 56, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 December 1908 — CROP REPORTING. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CROP REPORTING.

How tho Bureau of Statistics Does the Business. The bureau of statistics Issues each month detailed reports relating to agricultural conditions throughout the United States, the data upon which they are based being obtained [through a special field service, a corps of state statistical agents and a large body of voluntary correspondents composed of the following classes: County correspondents, township correspondents, Individual farmers and special cotton correspondents. The special field service consists of seventeen traveling agents, each assigned to report for a separate group of states. These agents are especially qualified by statistical training and practical knowledge of crops. They systematically travel over the district assigned to them, carefully note the development of each crop, keep in touch with best informed opinion and render written and telegraphic reports monthly and at such other times ss required. There are forty-five state statistical agents, each located in a different state. Each reports for his state as a whole and maintains a corps of correspondents entirely independent of those reporting directly to the department at Washington. These state statistical correspondents report each month directly to the state agent on schedules furnished him. The reports are then tabulated and weighted according to the relative product or area of the given crop in each county represented and are summarized by the state agent, who eo-ordlnates and analyzes them in the light of his personal knowledge and conditions and from them prepares hts reports to the department. There are approximately 2,800 counties of agricultural importance in the United States. In each the department has a principal county correspondent. who maintains an organization of several assistants. These county correspondents are selected with special reference to their qualifications and constitute an efficient branch of the crop reporting service. They make the county the geographical unit of their reports and after obtaining data each month from their assistants and supplementing these with information obtained from their own observation and knowledge report directly to the department at Washington. In the townships and voting precincts of the United States in which farming operations are extensively carried on the department has township correspondents, who make the township or precinct the geographical basis of reports, which they al§o send directly to the department each month. Finally at the end of the growing season a large number of Individual farmers and planters report on the results of their own individual farming operations during the year, * With regard to cotton, all the Information from the foregoing sources Is supplemented by that furnished by special cotton correspondents, embracing a large number of persons intimately concerned In the cotton Industry, and in addition Inquiries In relation to acreage and yield per acre of cotton are addressed to the bureau of the census list of cotton ginners through the courtesy of that bureau. Adjustable Farm Gate A heavy gate is very apt to sag even If carefully constructed and fairly well braced. A good plan is to make an adjustable brace like that shown iu the illustration. The post B is mortised into the sill A firmly and braced at the sides with the strips C. A sub-

stuntial pole. I). is pinned to the top of tlie gatepost and is also connected with the post by the adjustable brace, E E being fastened to: the pole D by pins through the holes in E. When the gate wigs lift the pole D' and adjust the brace E to a not lier*of the holes, thus taking up the sag. Value of Manure. While manure may contain only the same amount of actual fertilizing constituents as a given amount of commercial fertilizer, its benefit to the soil is sometimes much greater owing to its addition of humus. When manure is Incorporated with a soli It greatly Improves the texture, loosening a heavy, compact soli and binding together a light, leaeby one, making the soil more friable, warmer, more retentive of moisture and more congenial to plants in every way. Some experiments conducted by Professor King at the Wisconsin agricultural experiment station showed that certaiu manured land contained eighteen tons more water per acre In the upper foot of soil than similar land uninanured and thirty-four tons more in the soli to a depth of three feet. Manure exerts a quicker beneficial influence ou the texture of soils than green manures. He concludes that manures will ajeo'aid In equalizing the supply and distribution of water In the soils, that they will exert a material Influence In making soils warmer and that manured tend.: Is less subject to the denuding effects of wind and rain.

PLAN OF GATE.