REPORT OF THE STATISTICIAN. 603 
There are five States which show no increase of construction, viz, 
Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Nevada. 
Poor’s Manual of Railroads for 1887 gives the railway mileage of 
the United States at the close of 1886 as 137,986 miles. By assum- 
ing that the mileage for 1887 will ap lech th 13,000 miles we have 
the immense aggregate of 150,986 miles, which is three or four times 
greater than any other country i in the world. A brief comparison 
of the annual increase of railway mileage during the past ten years 
may be of interest: 
Miles of railroad constructed each year from 1878 to 1887, inclusive. 
Years. Miles, | Years. Miles 
' 
| | 
iat ce RAR 2 2 AR ea etbees DERI Pp TBO he cae oe Sree | eRe EN Ce ee eee 6,741 
Te eS | See evra Seer eee AAG RRS ON Ts Ao tse ko 12s ree de Dem erred meds | 3,825 
TEE: RES a ie eee “ERS A hess 5 Bal oe eae a Ra nS ah Se Ble Wil 3, 608 
1S} S Ee eo) ee 9,796 / BRB Mate) ore. 3g ORR Se eee 9,000 
Pee. 3 ee ERT  vichiv ac vwawc vcekias | 11, 568 | 113.3 SER eR Rieter RSD log ome *13,000 
* Estimated. 
CONCLUSION. 
The facilities for statistical work have been increased during the 
year. The mission of the Statistician, in the spring of 1887, for the 
investigation of statistical methods of European governments, and 
the exchange of official publications, and procurement of printed 
data illustrating the rural economy of European nations, resulted 
in obtaining valuable information concerning the organization, ap- 
pliances, purposes, and results of statistical Offices of the principal 
countries, and a collection of printed reports which constitute an 
invaluable addition to the reference library of the office. 
The Statistician had time only for a hurried investigation of the 
systems of Italy, France, Austria, Germany, and Great Britain. 
The representative of the Department i in London, Deputy Consul- 
General Edmund J. Moffat, did a similar duty in connection with 
the Holland and Belgium service. 
The Statistician desires to recognize gratefully the courteous and 
willing assistance received from officials everywhere in his efforts to 
learn the aim, scope, and methods of each official organization for 
statistical work. This effort was the more difficult and complicated 
from the diversity of organization and function—such divergence 
and lack of unity as exists in the scattered statistical bureaus and di- 
visions of different Departments of our Government. The ministers 
of the United Statés and the consul-generals located at Rome, Paris, 
Vienna, Berlin, Brussels, and London rendered with a lacrity any 
needed aid in ‘facilitating introduction to officials and promoting 
the efficiency of the investigation. Where all were courteous 
it may seem invidious to particularize, but it may be proper 
especially to recognize the assistance and kindness of Statisticians 
Luigi Bodio, director- general of Italian statistics, and N. Miraglia, 
director- general of agriculture, Rome, Italy; Alfred de Foville, chief 
of the bureau of statistics of the ministry of finance, and M. Tisse- 
rand, director of agriculture, Paris; Robert Giffen and Alfred Edward 
Bateman, of the board of trade, London; and Patrick George Craigie, 
