THE VALUE OF A. TRADE JOURNAL'S DATA. 73 



the Cincinnati Price Current as reliable and trustworthy, although even in a hasty read- 

 ing of that journal he discovered a lack of that complete accord with (its) prior utterances 

 which should characterize the statements of every publication assuniin*; so important a 

 duty as that of furnishing producers, consumers, merchants, transpoilers and the gen- 

 eral public with information and numerical data in relation to so vital a subject as that 

 pertaining to the world's food supply and yet, such was tlio staudiug of the Price Cur- 

 rent that the writi'r long deemed it but little short of heresy to ijuc-^tion any of its state- 

 ments, be they tabular or other, but being iin|)elled, by tlieunprofitableriess of his farming 

 o)ierations, to undertaUe an investigation of the present (and prospective) productive 

 power of the tields of tlie temperate zones supplying the food of the bread eating world 

 he soon found that neither the current statements or the tabuhited data of I lie Price Cur- 

 rent accorded witli its previous utterances or with available official reports, many of its 

 divergencies being so far out of Hue as to seem intentional, and it appeared to be in the 

 habit of publishing any set of figures that would conform to the argument it desired to 

 make. Careful reading of the Price Ctirrrnt brought the conviction home to the writer 

 that a theory was first espou.sed and then figures adopted— if not manufactured— that 

 would sustain the theory. 



To make it clear that little or no reliance can be placed upon tlie statemeuts and 

 data published by tlie Price Current, a small part of the errors crowding its pages during 

 recent weeks are instanced: 



In its issue of July 0th the Price Current places the production of wlieat in France 

 in 1890 at 325,000,000 bushels and states the largest French crop during the past seven 

 years to have been 325,000,000 and the smallest to have been 273,000,000 bushels, when it 

 Is ofBcially stated, in the bulletins of the French Ministry of Agriculture for the years 

 1S87, 1888 and 1889, and by the United States Dep.irtmeut of Agriculture for 18S-1. 188-5, 

 1886 and 1890, that the seven crops have given the following quantities: 



1884 .^24,130,000 bushels I 188S 280,177,000 busliels 



1885 312,912,000 " | 1889 307.357,000 " 



1886 304,427,000 " 11890 338,902,000 " 



1886 319,094,000 " | 



From this official data, all of which was available in publications of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture prior to the Price CurrerU's issue of July 9tli, we find that the largest 

 French crop of the seven years was 13,902.000 bushels greater and the smallest crop of the 

 seiies was 7,000,000 bushels greater than stated by the Price Current. 



In thesame is^ue it states that the Russian crop of 1890 was 197,000,000 bushels, the 

 largest Russian crop of the seven years was 274,000,000 bushels and the .smallest 178.000,- 

 OOO, while the official figures show that tlie crop of 1890 — exclusive of Poland — was 205 - 

 972,000 bushels, the largest crop 295,711,000 and the smallest 163,000,000 bushels, or a dif. 

 ference, respectively, of 8,972,000 bushels, 21,711.000 bushels and 15,000,000. 



In the same issue it tells us that the Italian wheat crop of 1890 was 126 000,000 

 bushels, the largest crop in seven years 129,000,000 bushels and the smallest one 103,000,- 

 OOO bushels. While this statement is but 640,000 bushels less than the ofBcial returns as 

 to the crop of 1890, Bulletin No. 10 of the Italian Ministry of Agriculture shows thiit 

 the largest crop during the seven years, other than that of 1890, was that of 1887, which 

 gave the out-turn of 119,500,000 bushels, or 9,500,000 bushels less than the Price Current's 

 largest crop, as that of 1890 was 2,360,000 bushels less; liut the most singular thing about 

 the Price Current's statements as to Italian wheat production is found in the fact that in 

 its issue of July 23rd it places the average yearly production of wheat in Italy at 135,000,- 

 000 bushels, being 6,000,000 bushels more than it states the greatest crop to have been. la 

 not the Price Current the only party that can make an average greater than the greatest 

 number of the series going t<> make up such average? 



When the Price Current jniblished these astounding figures the official data rela 

 ting to Italian crops, had long l>een available in the publications of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture. And this so readily available data, and no doubt in the p ■- 

 session o' the Price Current in the reports of the Department for April and June. 1891, 

 shows that the average yield of the wh^at fields of Italy during the last seven vears to 

 have been 113,480,000 bushels instead of the 135 000,000 stated by the Price Current. 



