injury by freezing is learned ; its growing condition from that time until harvested 

 is carefully reported to the Department ; when harvested, its supposed amount 

 as compared with a previous year, its quality, the amount of the injuries it has 

 received, and the causes of those injuries are likewise reported; and, finally, 

 after it is threshed, the amount is again reported. When the final tables are to 

 be made, all these returns are compared, the large correspondence accompanying 

 them is examined, and from all these tables are made up. 



Here let me remark that my own long practical experience and observation 

 in agriculture, for a period of over forty years, has given me to understand the 

 wants of the agricultural interests of our country; and hence the necessity for 

 placing the facts and conditions of the crops before the farmers of the United 

 States, that they may understand the true condition of the agricultural products 

 of the various sections of the country, and govern themselves accordingly. 



But, again : These tables are based upon clear and definite returns. The 

 statements are not that such a crop is "larger," "usual," "average," "equal," 

 "light," "good," "small," and so on, or given in fourths, or thirds, or halves, the 

 lowest of which often mean, in our great American farming, millions of bushels, 

 but the returns to this Department are stated in tenths, conveying precise, clear, 

 definite ideas, and quantities so small that their fractions used in the summaries 

 of the crops of each State represent such small quantities that an approximation 

 to correctness is secured. 



Nor is it of less importance to have as clear and definite a standard of com- 

 parison. The usual standard is an "average" crop. But what is an average 

 crop is a question that would be answered very differently by correspondents* 

 By reference to the questions of this Department it will be seen that they ask a 

 comparison with crops of certain years, the amounts of which have been pub- 

 lished by the Department. As soon as the Department can properly fix for 

 each crop, in each State, the amount per acre, constituting an average or normal 

 crop, it will do so, and then such standard will be more precise than even the 

 one now used. 



No people is more impatient to see results than those of the United States* 

 This disposition of mind invites in reports of the amount of the crops to pre- 

 mature statements ; but knowing well the vicissitudes of the seasons, that favor- 

 able or unfavorable weather usually largely increases or diminishes a crop, 

 this Department does not pretend to foretell, but simply to learn the state of the 

 crops at that time, when ordinarily they are matured or harvested. To " hasten 

 slowly" is a prudent maxim in every affair, but especially in matters of crop 

 reporting in a climate of extremes like that of the United States. Its uncertainty 

 is seen even in the tables of this report, based on information communicated as 

 late as the first day of this month, for doubtless the severe frost of October 9th 

 has injured the sorghum and buckwheat crops. 



Whilst thus referring to the reliability of the information derived from the 

 correspondents of the Department, because of their experience and the manifest 

 interest they take in obtaining correct knowledge of the state of the crops, it is 

 but justice to them to remind Congress that this information is communicated 

 gratuitously, save in receiving copies of the reports of this Department, and a 



