Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1895 — GOOD CROP REPORTS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GOOD CROP REPORTS.

FIFTY THOUSAND CORRESPONDENTS BEING ORGANIZED* The Agr'cultnraX Department En* ' The Agent Receives Only Depart* ! merit Documents in Compensation; Improvinsc the Service. Washington correspondence:

Henry a. robinson. The chief statistician of the Agricultural Depart ment, is engaged in the gigantic task of gNV organizing a corps of .50,000 correspondents throughout the agricultural di c - sjaa- trices, partlcularlyTn the West and South. corps will be twice as great as the . standing army of the United States, near9f**sr£ly one-half as great if 11 I(’) as nfiAtra force I! [I ;• in all of the Statei; ** and Territories, oue-

| twelfth of 1 per cent, o.f the population of j the United States, fifteen times as great as the whole corps of first, second and third class postmasters in the govern- ; ment service, to whom nearly $6,000,000 paid every year. And the work of this corps of correspondents will be performed without any cost to the government, except what is represented by the value of some crop pamphlets which are distrihuted by the Secretary of Agriculture every month. .. This woik-of organizing is the result of the meeting at Washington lust spring of tke representatives of commercial bodies—from all parts of the United States to protest against the system under which the information about’the crops was collected. The chief occupatiph of the statistician of the Agricultural Department is the preparation of statistics showing the condition of the growing crops. Bulletins containing this information are published -ey-ery.iaont-h. They-are awaited ouxtotts* — ly by all the people who are interested ip cotton or cereals. They are of chief infer- ; est to the speculators in grain and cotton, ! because if the government report shows 1 a good condition of the growing crops, the prices of grain for future de'.ivtry are likely • to go down; and if the government report ! shows a bad condition of the crops, or a - ' decrease in the acreage-planted, the price- ; is likely to go up. Whatever the eharac- : ter of the report, there is one class of men dissatisfied With'it; and never a mopth passes that the statistical! is not denounced by the speculators as unfair or stupid or corrupt. Mr. Robinson’s predecessor, Prof. Dodge, had This experience, and it was the persistent attacks : of the speculators and the dealers in grain in the large cities that brought about his retirement from the department. Mr. Robinson is. having a similar experience* and it is making his hair gray. Weakness i>c the Old System. Under the old system of making up the monthly crop report, returns were received at the statistician’s office ’from ; each agricultural county. In each of these counties were four correspondents. . One of these waa designated the chief ! corresnondept. and to this one the other three sent their reports of the crop conditions on » day fixed. These three reports the chief correspondent combined with his own, and he made a report to the Department of Agriculture on the crop Conditions of his county. There were (and there are now, for that matter) 10,000 pf these toorrespondeiits, of whom 2,soojsent reports to the department. In addition te these correspondents, there ia ! another corps which is intended to bo : just as large, which is organized in each State under the supervision of a State agent, who receives a salary from the government. This salary may he anything from S4OO to $1,200 a year. The amount is supposed to be proportioned to the work. Mr. Robinson tells me that the division of salaries has not been entirely fair in the past, and that there is to be a reorganization of these State agencies some time In the near future. These State agents appoint their correspondents in each county, who are independent of the agents reporting direct to the department. The reports of their agents are made to them direct, and then each State agent assembles the reports which come to him and makes up a general report of crop conditions in the State to send to Washington. The two sets of correspondents are expected to be a check on each other. If there is any discrepancy between the reports of one and the reports of tire other, the statistician investigates through a special agent, and learns which set of correspondent s is wrong. When the representatives of the commercial bodies met here the statistician went over the subject of the reports with consideration he cnine to tire conclusion that he was not raking the country carefully enough for his crop fact's. So he determined to multiply the number of the department's direct correspondents by five. Instead of having four correspondents to a county, he determined to have one to each township. The question was how to get at the right men. Mr. Robinson decided to write to the county clerks, as men likely to know the most available correspondents. So lie selected -twenty-one States, in which from twothirds to nine-tenths of the gruin crops are raised, and sent circular letters to the county clerks, asking them to send the names of men, two in each township, who might be willing to act as the department’s correspondents, and who would be competent to make crop estimates. With each circular was inclosed a franked envelope for reply. This correspondence has involved no little labor. Most of the county clerks have replied promptly, biit a great many have not replied at all,, and it has been necessary to address these again. In all, there are nbont 2,500 county clerks to hear from, but the department has not entered into correspondence with all of them at once. For, when the county clerk replfes.Tt is necessary /it the statistician to address circular letters to twenty men fbore or less in the county; and when these twenty men have replied, to send circular* to t)ao alternates, in case th* men first addressed refuse to serve. Harvard University began its 258th year with increased attendance in all departments and the prospects of another prosperous year. The students have been pouring into Cambridge during the past week and the old college yard has shsken offjita summer lethsrgy snd become sll I hustle snd activity once more. t