REPORT OF THH STATISTICIAN, 
Str: I have the honor to submit my nineteenth report as Statis- 
tician of this Department. Twenty-four annual reports of the Stat- 
istician have been made—those of 1863 and 1864 by Lewis Boliman, 
and those of 1878, 1879 and 1880 by Charles Worthington; the re- 
mainder by the present Statistician. The volume 1881-8? comprised 
the work of two years. 
During these twenty-four years a remarkable progress has been 
made in statistics, and especially in agricultural statistics. It has 
been an era of organization, of the creation of machinery for record- 
ing and handling data in the interest of industrial and commercial 
development. It has been a period of scientific discovery, of experi- 
ment in rural economy, of record of agricultural practice and the re- 
sults of rural production. 
The statistics of this country do not now suffice to meet the wants 
of legislators and businessmen. They want the statistics of the 
world. There are few products, edible or textile, which enter into 
consumption to any appreciable extent which are not grown or pos- 
sible of growth within the national domain, and in many a surplus 
is produced which may enter into competition with similar products 
of other continents; hence the knowledge of foreign crop results, de- 
ficiencies in supply, and current prices, is eagerly sought by farmers, 
commercial men, and statesmen. 
_ This pursuit of current statistical information has become so eager 
that data attainable and unattainable, existent and non-existent, are 
alike required, in season and out of season, of a character possible 
and impossible. Such demands, often unreasonable and annoying, 
attest, nevertheless, the growing importance of statistics. 
That portion of our work which relates to crop reporting has be- 
come so influential in the marts of trade, so much relied upon as in- 
dications of production and the tendency of prices, that the utmost 
skill and care are required in the presentation of results of our inves- 
tigations, that misunderstandings may be prevented and inaccurate 
views of the crop situation avoided. Unfortunately no statement 
can be so just, no language so plain, that satisfaction will always be 
given alike to all warring elements of the exchange. Unfortunately 
for the morals of trade, there is also deliberate misinterpretation of 
returns after their issue, and not unfrequently deliberate manu- 
facture of pretended official reports prior to their receipt. This is 
unavoidable, at least by the Statistician, and must be endured as re- 
sults of one of the weaknesses of human nature. 
There is frequent criticism of the methods and machinery of crop 
reporting, generally by individuals who are either ignorant of the 
organization and its workings, or hostile to results that do not favo7 
their present speculative purposes. Improvement is desirable, and 
practical suggestions promising betterment, however slight, would 
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