THE MONTHLY REPORTS OF THIS DEPARTMENT. 

 The purpose and character of these reports — Their intended improvement 



AND essential TO THIS IS A MORE EXTENDED AND MORE SYSTEMATIC BASIS FOR ES- 

 TIMATES OF PRODUCTION — A CENSUS EVERY FIFTH YEAR ; STATE CENSUSES CONSID- 

 ERED — Greater cheapness and importance of that hy the general govern- 

 ment — The future necessity of a Statistical Bureau in the Agricultural 

 Department — The immediate want of power in it to collect statistics per- 

 taining TO manufactures and commerce, AND OF THOSE RELATIVE TO EUROPEAN 

 CROPS. 



When the monthly reports were commenced, it was expected that they would 

 be discontinued with the October number, as that one concluded the notices of 

 the crops of 1863, and be resumed in May of next year. But it is found neces- 

 sary to continue them. The winter is the only time in which to collect and 

 publish statistics of form stock, and of prices, yields per acre of various crops, 

 use of manures, and other matter essential to the prosperity of agriculture. It 

 is the object of these reports to place before the public all statistics, and ques- 

 tions growing out of them, that connect themselves with the progress of the 

 industrial pursuits ; and these are so many and so diversified that every month 

 of the year has statistics peculiar to it, and of so much importance that no 

 month can be passed by without a report of these, not, perhaps, in a separate 

 report for each month, but in one issued e%'ery two months, for experience indi- 

 cates tha t a monthly report does not admit of time necessary for our correspond- 

 ents to collect statistics, and for the Department to maturely consider them. It 

 is certain that there will not be sufficient time when the Union shall be restored, 

 nor is there now to receive returns from the Pacific States and from the Terri- 

 ritories ; the latter of which are rapidly assuming an importance to the progress 

 of the whole country, for, as correctly remarked, they are to contribute in an 

 incalculable degree to its material wealth. All these should be represented in 

 the reports of the Department. 



The monthly report was an experiment during the summer, but its purpose 

 and influence Avere more clearly seen in the September and October numbers, 

 and by these have its character been established. Whilst it is not the inten- 

 tion of the Commissioner of Agriculture to makp public whatever of approba- 

 tion his course may receive, yet in a new enterprise, not before attempted by 

 any nation, it is not improper to publish, as instances of the sentiment expressed 

 to him, the following extracts of letters from difierent parts of the country: 



From Indiana, a correspondent says : " The occasional numbers of your 

 monthly report, as the Commissioner of Agriculture, which have come under 

 my notice, have inspired me with so much interest that I take the liberty to ask 

 you to favor me with the back numbers of the same." 



From Illinois, another correspondent thus writes : " I take this occasion to 

 express the hope that your monthly reports may be continued, so as to become 

 a permanent fact. The country, if I am not greatly mistaken, will demand some- 

 thing more than your annual reports, now that we have a Department, and as you 

 have commenced a monthly report, Ave intend to compel you to keep it up 

 through the year." 



The Secretary of the Illinois State Agricultural Society writes as follows : 

 " Two copies of your report for 1862 have come to hand. It is certainly of 

 great value, and, togethei- with your monthly reports, is excellent evidence of 

 energy and intelligence now in the Department." 



From New York, another correspondent says : " I have duly received your 

 monthly reports, and must say they have, in all things, fully met my expecta- 

 tions, and the more they are extended the better." 



The following is from a letter written by a correspondent of Massachusetts : 

 " Your last monthly report (September) is one of remarkable excellence. You 



