14 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



the industry therefore may be wiade one for the household, thus utiliz 

 ing time that woukl otherwise be lost. 



The filature problem, therefore, becomes the more difficult one to 

 solve and has received much attention. In furthering the establish- 

 ment of a cocoon market, and with a view to obtaining some relialjle 

 statistics of the expense of operating a filature in the United States, 

 two stations have been opened, one at New Orleans, and the other at 

 Philadelphia. At these points, in co-operation with private persons, I 

 have been, since last spring, operating two small establishments, which 

 have consumed several hundred pounds of cocoons raised in the United 

 States. It was not to be expected that first-class raw silk would at 

 first be produced. American silk-raisers are as yet too generally in- 

 experienced to produce a first-class cocoon,' which can only be looked 

 for after several years of successful operation in the industry. A station 

 has also been opened in California, a building suitable for making seri- 

 cultural experiments having been constructed at Piedmont, in Alameda 

 County. Here it is designed to (.'xi)eriment in co-operation with the 

 State board of silk culture, and the Ladies' Silk Culture Society, at the 

 same time using the institution as a sericultural school. The division 

 will continue during the coming winter and spring to distribute silk- 

 worm eggs and manuals of instructions in silk-culture to all worthy ap- 

 plicants, and to take such other steps towards fostering the industry as 

 circumstances may from time to time require. 



DIVISION OF STATISTICS. 



The branch of the Department service under the direction of the 

 Statistician has met the public demand for co-ordinated fact and sys- 

 tematic statement, during the past year, in response to requests from 

 heads of Dei)artments, Senators and Members of the House, officials of 

 foreign governments, boards of trade and chambers of commerce, ag- 

 ricultural and industrial societies, authors, editors, and others. The 

 neceesity for comprehensiveness and completeness in statistics, as well 

 as accuracy, is more ai)preciated as popular intelligence advances and 

 culture broadens. 



The printed reports of the statistics of agriculture during the year 

 include 708 pages of monthly issues, and 147 of the annual report, a 

 total of 855 pages. The aim has been in these reports to give practical 

 and useful information, plainly and concisely, avoiding as much as pos- 

 sible fragmentary and inconclusive statement. 



The crop-rei)ortiug system, which has been in operation twenty 

 years, and lias been adopted by several States and by some Eift'opean 

 governments, consists of boards of observation and report in over 

 eighteen hundred 'sounties of the United States, comprising nearly aL 

 of the developed territory of the United States. A parallel or dupli- 

 cate work, for the purpose of verification and for special local iuvesti 

 gation, is carried on through State agents. The foreign work, under 



