24 



The first thing that will strike the attentive examiner of these tables is the 

 great difference in the Ohio returns between the years 1862 and 1863. In wheat 

 it is 9,715,056 bushels, and in rye, 518,649 bushels. Here is a loss of one-third 

 in wheat, and over 62 per cent, in rye. What extraordinary casualties caused 

 themi In this Department inquiries of the condition of the crops were made 

 from May to September, every month; and if any such had fallen upon the 

 crops of 1863, the correspondents of fifty-two comities in Ohio would have had 

 some knowledge of them. Of their returns, but three counties returned a very 

 low yield of the wheat crop, and but seven moderately low ; whilst twelve were 

 returned above the crop of 1862. The average injury to the wheat crop was 

 1^ tenths. The returns by them of the rye crop exhibit a still more favorable 

 condition. 



In the buckwheat crop, it will be seen that the estimates of this Department 

 are much greater than either of the years showing the returns of Ohio. Which 

 is right? 



In 1859 the Ohio returns show that there were 149,645 acres of buckwheat 

 in cultivation, yielding 2,222,083 bushels; but this large amount was occasioned 

 by the freezing of whe.at in June, and a largely increased acreage in buckwheat 

 was the consequence. But in 1860 the number of acres in buckwheat was 

 66,827, and the yield 763,930 bushels. How is it possible for so great a falling 

 off as the returns for 1862 and 1863 exhibit? The severe drought in the eastern 

 part of the State in 1862 may account for a small portion of it; but a difference 

 so very great must' find other and more general cause. 



In tobacco there is an increase as remarkable as the decrease of the products 

 just referred to. Until 1863 the Ohio returns did not embrace this product; 

 but Mr. Mansfield, the commissioner of statistics, estimated the amount at 

 25,000,000 pounds in 1862. Yet the returns show a product in 1863 of 

 36,918,793 pounds. The estimates of this Department may have been too low, 

 for want of a proper basis to detennine the true value of the returns of its cor- 

 respondents, and it was a year of remarkable changes in tobacco cultivation. 

 But still we believe that it is nearer the correct amount than the Ohio returns. 

 The number of acres in tobacco is reported to be 49,168; whilst that in buck- 

 wheat is but 26,735, and in rye only 32,280. Such statistics, it seems to us, 

 are very extraordinary. 



In farm stock there is not the same difference, although apparently there is 

 considerable. The estimates of the Department show the number in January 

 1864, whilst the returns of the Ohio assessors show perhaps the number in the 

 spring following. During the winter many cattle had been sold for beef, and a 

 large number of shoats and pigs had been lost for want of food to properly winter 

 them and the sows. But sheep had been well taken care of and had yielded their 

 ordinary increase. As to mules, it is probable the Ohio returns are more correct 

 than the estimates of the Department, for the number as shown in the census 

 returns of 1860, being but 6,917 for asses and mules, was doubtless too low, but 

 it -had to be accepted as the basis of the estimates of this Department. 



This comparison but gives us more confidence in the plan adopted by the De- 

 partment for estimating the annual agricultural productions. Regarding its rapid 

 action and its very small cost, with its general approximation to correctness, it 

 may justly be regarded as worthy public confidence, and of that encouragement 

 of a regular corps of correspondents, which has often been asked of Congress 

 in these reports. 



On the other hand, the comparison will also serve to exhibit the unreliability 

 of State returns made by assessors, who feel no interest in the statistics they 

 gather, because they have not learned to appreciate their value, as have the cor- 

 respondents of this Department, nor are they compelled to properly discharge 

 their oflicial trusts, by penalties upon them, for neglect, or for failing to retm-n 

 those who refuse to give in the true amount of their annual productions. 



