REPORTS FROM COUNTY SOCIETIES. 607 



you will pardon me for clioosing a subject in which I am more directly interested, 

 and with which I am therefore better acquainted. I take as the subject of this 

 paper, " The State Crop Reporting Systems." It certainly will not be inappropri- 

 ate to present tiiis subject to any organization whose principal purpose is the 

 advancement of agriculture. It has been more or less fully discussed in other States, 

 but I believe never yet upon a Michigan platform, nor very thoroughly by the Mich- 

 igan press. 



The State crop reporting systems. — When were they established, why were they 

 established, wiiat have they accomplished? 



The first crop reports issued understate authority were published by Secretary 

 S. D. Fisher, of the Illinois Board of Agricultui-e, in the year 1876. In tliat year the 

 number of correspondents reporting to him from each county was three, increased to 

 Ave in 1S77. The subject was first broached in Michigan by the Secretary of State in 

 1877, in the introductory to the cereal report; it was referred to again in 1878, when 

 It was asserted that " the reporters should be located in each township, and their 

 final reports of each wheat crop sliould show the actual average yield per acre, 

 machine measure." This is the earliest proposition for a system of township reports 

 of which I have knowledge. 



Attention was again called to the matter by the Secretary of State in 1880, in the 

 introductory to the Farm Statistics. Tlie hill providing for the publication of the 

 reports was introduced in the House by Representative Charles W. Garfield, Secre- 

 tary of tiie State Horticultural Society, and carried through the House mainly by 

 his efforts. It was managed in the Senate by Senator iVlars, of Berrien county. 

 The firt report under this law was issued in September, 18S1. The wheat estimate 

 published in July of that year was prepared from estimates made by supervisors. 



In 1881 the first Ohio report was published by Mr. Chamberlain, Secretary of the 

 Board of Agriculture, and during the past session Indiana published a monthly 

 statement. 



Why were the crop reporting systems established? 



It is commonly asserted by tlie producers of this country that the price of produce 

 is controlled by speculation, rather than by laws of supply and demand; that the 

 speculators manipulate the markets in tlieir own interest and to the great injury of 

 the producing class. This assertion can hardly be successfully maintained. Supply 

 and demand do always control the price, and when it seems to be otherwise in this 

 country careful examination will reveal tlie fact that the supply rather is what is 

 controlled. It maybe controlled either by "cornering" the market, or by circulat- 

 ing widely exaggerated stories of immense production and consequent surplus by 

 which the producers are led to believe that the supply is greatly in excess of the 

 demand. In the latter case, no matter how ridiculously absurd the stories, they have 

 all the force of truth to the deceived producer, and control the price of his surplus. 

 It however occurs, and can occur, only when the grain dealers are able to obtain 

 more promptly and accurately than tlie producer can, the information concerning the 

 probable supply and demand. When the dealers possess a monopoly of crop infor- 

 mation, we naed not be surprised if they use their monopoly powers as other monop- 

 olists do; but make the sources of information equally accessible to both classes, and 

 there is no reasonable excuse for the producers being cheated. Until recently it has 

 not been possible for the producers to obtain the information so vitally important 

 to them. As compared with the number of producers in the country, the number of 

 dealers is insignificant, but being a wealthy class, or at least controlling vast sums of 

 money, and being concentrated at business centers, it is not difficult for them to 

 organize their strength and wield it as a unit. The limited number of dealers, the 

 large moneyed interests of each, and their concentration, are the principal elements 

 of their vast power. One of the chief objects of their organization is to ascertain 

 promptly and accurately the probable outcome of the growing crops. For this pur- 

 pose they employ men who travel from county to county and from State to State, 

 and carefully examine the crops and report upon their probable yield. Secretary 

 Fisher, of the Illinois Board of Agriculture, says: "It is well known that dealers 

 employ the best talent in the market to travel over the grain-growing States to 

 examine into the condition of the growing crops, with a view of approximating as 

 to the area of each crop, and to develop other facts that would enable them to deter- 

 mine the value of prospective crops for speculative purposes" One of these agents 

 visited the ofiice of the Secretary of State July, ISSl. He had already traveled 

 through Kansas and Illinois, and went from here to Ohio and Indiana. A few days 

 later 1 heard of him at Columbus, Ohio, where he made Secretary Chamberlain a 

 call similar to the one made at. the Secretary's office. It was this man's practice to 

 leave the cars at the chief points in the principal wheat-growing sections, make 

 inquiries of farmers who chance to be in town, and particularly of agricultural itnple- 



