J98 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the importance and expediency of collecting statistics of agricultural 

 produce, it might seem hardly necessary to enlarge, but the claims 

 of statistical science in this direction have not hitherto been univer- 

 sally recognized. It is a melancholy truth, that, as yet, few believe 

 in statistics. The philosophy of inductive science is with large 

 numbers a mysterious problem. Everybody admits that if in re- 

 peated instances over a long space of time, a certain event has hap- 

 pened at certain periods, there is good ground for believing that the 

 same will continue to happen; but a preconceived skepticism in 

 numbers prevents them applying common reason to great but every 

 day occurrences. They have not the power of magnifying figures 

 and of preserving the same faith in them. Besides, other considera- 

 tions foreign to the purpose, as well as self-interest, political ten- 

 dencies, or dread of revelations, enter the mind and are sufficient to 

 make them decided enemies to statistical inquiries. The masses, 

 therefore, must be taught the meaning of statistics, their object and 

 province. Statistics is the science of observation. It takes actual 

 facts and studies them in their nature and effects. It is founded 

 rather on experience than on theory. A chemical discovery is 

 made. It is applied to the cultivation of the soil. The statistics of 

 produce of that soil before and after the application of such chemi- 

 cal discovery is the surest test of its worth. Within the domain of 

 statistics is whatever is important to the interest of a State, whether 

 it be institutions, physical forces, education, science, crime, or re- 

 ligion. Its province is to elaborate truths which lie remote from the 

 surface of daily life, and to reduce into statistical analysis, the 

 wants, the resources and the experiences of society at large." 



And again : " The collection of agricultural statistics is an essen- 

 tial duty of nations and of individuals — a duty, the performance of 

 which demanding an extensive and permanent machinery, it be- 

 hooves government to undertake. The difficulties to its performance 

 are more ephemeral than real, and the objections raised against it, 

 are inconsistent with the true interests of the nation collectively 

 and of the individuals composing it respectively. Such inquiry is 

 demanded by the uncertainty to which the people is exposed as to 

 the amount of food it possesses within a certain time, with its ever 

 increasing wants — by the fluctuation which follows in the prices of 

 produce, increasing or reducing its value largely — and by the- 



