REPORT OF THE STATISTICIAN. 117 



14. Examples of large yields and best farms. 



15. Varieties of seed preferred. 



IG. Tendency as to production of home supplies. 



Answers were received with estimates covering about half the entire 

 area in cotton, each State having from three-eighths to live-eighths of its 

 field of production represented. They indicate great progress since the 

 first investigation was made, showing that the labor of the freedman is 

 steadier and more efiicient, a larger proportion of white labor is repre- 

 sented in the crop, and a larger production is obtained per hand. Farms 

 continue to decrease in size. The use of home-made composts is in- 

 creasing. There is greater economy of the fertilizing resources of cot- 

 ton-seed ; a larger proportion of corn to cotton ; more interest in im- 

 proved implements ; a larger proportion of homo supplies of meat ; and 

 a disposition among advanced cultivators to adopt a rotation, and to give 

 to domestic animals a higher place in the farm economy. Not that these 

 reforms are far advanced or equally essayed. Where white labor is in- 

 creasing exists the strongest tendency toward the use of labor-saving 

 implements. In many of these points little more than a promising be- 

 ginning has been made. 



THE COTTON AHEA. 



The first four questions were intended mainly to aid in a more accu- 

 rate understanding of the area actually cultivated in cotton, and in- 

 cidentally to show the local changes in cotton-growing and local dif- 

 ferences in fertility of soil. 



The acreage of cotton has never been given in the census. Areas ot 

 special culture have never been comprehended in the census schedules, 

 nor the aggregate area in cultivation^ the only returns made being the 

 amount of laud in farms and the proportion in " improved" land, i. e., 

 cultivated and fallow lands and permanent pasture. 



The first estimates of acreage published were issued hy this Depart- 

 ment. They were deduced from State averages of local estimates of 

 yield per acre, knowing that direct estimates of the rate of production 

 are invariably too high ; not in every individual case, but in averages. 

 The returns of yield were closely scanned and modified where errors 

 could be shown ; but the result was somewhat too high, and the deduced 

 area producing the given crop was therefore somewhat too small. These 

 estimates were published for years, with annual modifications, by the 

 commercial press, the yearly comparisons favoring the producer, the 

 crop increasing, but the acreage apparently remaining nearly the same 

 for a period of years, with some annual fluctuation. To these two 

 causes are due a misconception of the real extent of the cotton-field that 

 is much to be regretted. So apparent was this error, that, as early as 

 1S71, the publication of cotton acreage estimates ceased in these reports, 

 and every opportunity for gaining data for correction was used. A multi- 

 plicity of other statistical work demanded attention. No general system- 

 atic investigation was undertaken till 1875, when the difficult task was 

 essayed, and in the monthly report for June the following important 

 but inconclusive results were reported : 



We have obtained an actual censiia, wherever it was possible, for a fjivcn district, 

 ■whether a large or a small portion of the county, both of bales produced and the num- 

 ber of acres upon -which they -were Rrown. Our correspondents were urged to avoid 

 estimates and give only ascertained facts. So a census of a few farms would be taken 

 here, a neighborhood there, and occasionally a larger district. The local officers were 

 iu some instances enlisted in the work. The results are not complete, and are not 

 deemed quite sufficient for an authoritative estimate which can be relied on in the 

 future as a perfectly accurate basis of comparison ; yet they are too important to ba 



