REPORT OF THE STATISTICIAN. 



U. S. Department of Agriculture, 



Division of Statistics, 

 Washington, D. C, October i, JOf'(J. 

 Sir: I have the honor to submit herewith a report of the \v<jrk of 

 the Division of Statistics for the fiscal year ending June -MK I'.'oo. 

 Respectfully, 



John Hyde, 



St(d,istician. 

 lion. James Wilson, Secretary. 



work of the year, with recommendations, 

 the principal avork of the division. 



The principal work of this Division, the work that forms the most 

 consjiicuons feature of its entire operations, has continuously 

 employed upon it three-fourths of tlir cU'rical force of the Division, 

 embodies the results of the work of upward of 200,000 correspond- 

 ents, and absorbs nine-tenths of the annual approiiriation, affords, 

 eight years out of ten, but little material for use in an executive report. 

 Its scope can not be abridged without serious detriment to tlie agri- 

 cultural industry, nor can it be enlarged, under conditions giving tlie 

 l^romise of satisfactory results, except when the decennial Federal 

 Census furnishes a new statistical starting point that is at once defi- 

 nite and authoritative. This work consists, as has frequently been 

 stated, of a continuous inquiry into the condition of the agricultural 

 industry, as indicated by the area of land devoted to the cultivation 

 of the principal products of the soil; the actual volume of production 

 and the value of particular crojjs, lioth on the farm and in the princi- 

 pal nmrkets; the cost of production per acre and per unit of quantity, 

 and the cost of transportation; the numl)er and value of farm ani- 

 mals and the losses annually resulting from disease and exposure; 

 and the volume, condition, and prospects, according to the season of 

 the year, of such of the crops of foreign countries as compete with 

 those of the United States in the world's markets. 



The approaching availability of the census reports brings with it the 

 necessity of immediate preparation for that broadening of the scope 

 of the statistical Avork of this Department in relation to domestic 

 products Avhich lias so frequently been urged upon the Secretary and 

 the Statistician, l)ut wliicli could not be propei-ly entered iipon duriug 

 the closing years of an iutercensal period. 



The most important fact in this connection is the entire impractica- 



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