AGRICULTUKAL STATISTICS. 581 



The modes adopted have several objects in view. One, as the decennial 

 census of the United States, aims to ascertain the general progress of the nation 

 and its direction. Another, as the fifth-year census of Massachusetts, has tlie 

 same object in view, but to determine these at shorter intervals. A third mode 

 is seen in the annual censuses of several of the States, as of Ohio, Iowa, 

 Kansas, and California, which, to the objects already named, add the additional 

 one of affecting the course of agricultm-al and manufacturing industry by 

 pointing out wherein lies its excess or deficiency. A fourth one goes yet 

 further, and endeavors to estimate the amount of the crops before they have 

 passed from the hands of the producer, that he may reap the just reward of his 

 toil — a price greater or less, as the annual production may be small or greai. 

 It seeks not only to show the general progress and direction of agricultural in- 

 dustry, but the market values of its productions. 



1. Great Britain. — In this nation, where agriculture has attained such high 

 perfection, no mode of ascertaining its product, established by law, exists. 

 The farmers of England oppose it, whilst those of Scotland favor it. Attempts 

 have been made in Parliament to establish one, but as yet unsuccessfully. 

 Their only result has been to elicit the reasons of this hostility of the English 

 farmers, which, so far as we have seen them, are refuted by experience here. 

 But in the absence of a national mode, the Mark Lane Express has endeavored 

 to supply the want of it by its own enterprise. We, therefore, refer to its plan 

 as the English mode. 



In its issue of February 8, 1864, we find its report of the cereal crops for 

 1863 of wheat, barley, oats, and potatoes, and in that of February 22 for the 

 ci'ops of beans, peas, turnips, and mangolds. To exhibit the plan adopted by 

 the Express we take its introductory remarks, 'and its return of the first-named 

 crops for the county or shu-e of Devon, and that of the last-named for the 

 county of Bedford. 



The Express says : 



"According to our annual custom, we. present in to-day's impression a tabular view of the 

 results of the liai-vest of 1863, the substance of more than six hundred letters from all parts 

 of England, and from the most respectable and reliable authorities. In another table will be 

 found a condensed view of these results, bringing them into a few lines, and showing at one 

 glance the most correct estimate of the actual produce of the country that can be obtained, so 

 far as the principal articles of human food are concerned. The remaining crops will be 

 treated of in a future number of the paper." 



From this "condensed view" we take the returns for the counties of Devon 

 and of Bedford, that the reader may clearly see their character. The names 

 following the county are the places from which the returns are made : 



