THE VALUE OF A TRADE JOURNAL'S DATA. 75 



an examiimtion of the reports of the U. 8. Departmentof Agriculture for December, 1883^ 

 where it is sliown that the consumption of wiieat aud rye (inoluclin;,' mixtures of the two 

 grains) for bread, .'■ted iiud use in tlie arts during tlie ten years followiiifj the I"'rani")-(}er- 

 man war — when the population was fully a million less than now — averaged 40(i, 1)00,000 

 bushels per year, being at the rale of 10.97 bushels per capita, while during the years 

 tabulated above the per capita quota, for all purposes, has been 10.92 bushels. The quan- 

 tity consumed is found to be a very constant one. 



In the issue of the Price Current now under review it is stated that the United King- 

 dom will, during this cereal year, require to import 137,000,000 bushels of wheat, while 

 the imports of the last four years are oflicially shown to have averaged more than 151,- 

 000,000 bushels, and the British grain trade journals estimate the imports at from 

 162,000,000 to 165,000,000 bushels. 



Moreover, the Price Current states the present annual consumption of Britain at 

 about 210,000,000 bushels, when the production aud net importation of wheat alone, during 

 the last four years arc found, from official reports, to have averaged more than 227,000,000 

 bushels (and about 2.500,000 bushels of rye) sliowing tliat the annual supply has exceeded 

 the Price Current's statement by fully 17,000.000 bushels. At the time this reckless, mis- 

 leading aud wholly incorrect statement wiis sent out the ofticial data, both as to jnoduc- 

 tiou and importatiini, had long been readily available, showing the facts to be entirely at 

 variance with Price Current utterances. 



Every issue of the Price Current that the writer has examined carefully has been filled 

 with errors of like character, but space permits but a small fraction to be enumerated, 

 aud the statement of one or two more must suffice. 



In its issue of July 23d the Price Current states the annual average production of 

 rye in Eoumania to be 40,000,000 bushels and that of Italy to be 15,000,000. In its latest 

 official out-givings the Roumanian government shows the rye acreage to be less than 

 430,000 acres and to produce 40,000,000 on such an area the yield must exceed 81 bushels 

 per acre, aud to produce crops averaging 15,000,000 bushels the rye fields of Italy must 

 yield more than 38 bushels per acre. 



Aside from the improbability of such yields when the Price Current sent forth such 

 preposterous statements there was available, in the June report of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, the official report of the Italian Ministry showing that from 

 1884 to 1889, inclusive, the crops of rye had averaged but 4,084,000 bushels, while the July 

 report of tho Department, likewise available when this absurd publication was made, 

 shows the yield of rye in Roumauia in 1889 to have been 10,305.000 bushels. 



When the attention of the Price Current was called to these very wide discrepan- 

 cies, and it was asked to name its authority for such statements, the editor wrote: 



"I do not find the data on which the compilation you refer to was based, as to Rou- 

 mania, but I think this item was obtained from Beerbohm, while the figures for Italy / 

 think were from a compilation which I published four or five years ago, from sources tljen 

 deemed authentic, as an indication of average production jyrevioun to that time. I pre- 

 sume I may soon find this material aud if it is difl'ereiit, especially with lefereuce to 

 Roumauia, I will address you again." 



This is an astounding confession coming, as it does, from the editor of a journal 

 that poses as an authority upon so grave a suiject as food production and consumption — 

 a subject that involves the well being of nearly every man, woman and child in America. 

 At best the Price Current is convicted, out of its own mouth, of imposing upon the public 

 so-called data that has had no revision for years, for which it is unable to name any 

 authority and, this too, when an abuudance of official data was readily available. 



It seems that the Price Current does not know where its figures came from, ho-y they 

 originated, and it has been shown that they not only vary from week to week but in the 

 3ame issue and column. 



Is not this one of the most bare-faced frauds that was ever perpetrated upon confid- 

 ing patrons who are paying for this sort of stufl' and relying' upon it for ihe direction of 

 their business? 



Th" investigations of the writer show that much, if not all, the so-called data of 

 this sheet is of this character, and the evidence furnished by the editor's confession. 



