190 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



all the rice used, and soon will be exporting considerable 

 quantities. 



In the congressional seed distribution the department is 

 endeavoring to fulfill the original intent of the law, — to 

 distribute rare and valuable seeds. Many of these are 

 being obtained through seed and plant introduction and by 

 the scientific investigation of the various branches of the 

 Bureau in the production of new crops by breeding. 



Division of Statistics. 



This office is chiefly engaged in ascertaining the area, pro- 

 duction and value of the principal farm crops annuall}'^, and 

 the condition of these crops monthly while the}^ are grow- 

 ing. Dependence is placed, primarily, upon three sets of 

 correspondents, with important additional sources of infor- 

 mation in the case of cotton. Of the 2,800 counties in the 

 United States, about 2,500 are represented by count}^ cor- 

 respondents, each of whom has three assistants reporting 

 directly to himself, upon a plan similar to the one governing 

 his own report to the department. 



The township is the unit for which correspondents of 

 another corps report, their number being about 30,000, rep- 

 resenting most of the agricultural townships of the country. 



These two corps of correspondents report directly to the 

 Washington office, but there is a third corps of correspond- 

 ents reporting in each State directly to a State agent, upon 

 a plan smiilar to that governing the other corps, and these 

 reports are tabulated by the State agent, and the results 

 sent by telegraph or mail to Washington. 



Each corps of correspondents is ke})t entirelj^ separate 

 and distinct, no one individual being allowed to serve upon 

 any two of the lists, and the returns made by each corps 

 are tabulated independently. 



The three reports are brought together in convenient form 

 on the 8th of each month ; and the statistician is thus pro- 

 vided with three separate statements, covering the same 

 territoiy and the same cro})s, made by separate corps of 

 correspondents, each reporting in a territory with which he 

 is thoroughly familiar, and from these results the statistician 



