398 HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 
Mr. Burueson. The reason you kept him in Texas was because Texas 
produces the stuff? 
Mr. Hotmes. Yes: and because we had so much trouble in Texas. 
We should have another cotton man there, as I have said, a man for 
cotton and rice. Now, we have a rice report practically ready to pub- 
lish. We are ready to make a report on rice, the same as we do on 
other crops. But we can not do that unless we send a man down there 
who is thoroughly posted, and to verify and to substantiate our origi- 
nal figures. You see, we have nothing to start on. That is our great 
trouble in adding new crops to our list, and the rice people all through 
that section have been after us for the last two years to do it. 
Mr. Lever. What section is that? Texas, too? 
Mr. Hortmss. Texas; yes, sir; and a few other States. And we also 
have the necessity for a tobacco man in the field. Now, they are the 
four men we want, and they will take, approximately, $20,000 for sala- 
ries and expenses. 
Mr. Bowrz. What proportion do the expenses bear to the salaries? 
Mr. Houmes. Larger than the salaries. 
Mr. Bowiz. That makes up your $20,000? 
Mr. Hotmes. That makes up the $22,000. 
The Cuarrman. How does your rice man operate? What would 
be his real work? What would he do actually, after he gets down 
there? 
Mr. Hotmes. I am not a rice man. 
The Cuarrman. Take a tobacco man, or a corn man—any man you 
lease. 
Mr. Hotmes. He would go to the great rice houses, the rice dealers, 
and he would ascertain the consumption of rice, and he would then 
ascertain from the railroads the receipts and shipments of rice. He 
would besiege anybody who had any information on the subject, and 
either confirm or disprove the figures we have ready for him now. 
The Cuarrman. Would he get the information daily or at the end of 
the rice season ? 
Mr. Homes. In the first place, he would get right to work now and 
finish up as quickly as he could on last year’s crop, make an estimate 
of that, and after that he would report rice just as we do grain and 
cotton, and we would use him for rice part of the time and for cotton 
part of the time during the cotton season. He is really more of a 
cotton man than he is a rice man. 
The Cuarrman. It is an estimate, after all? 
Mr. Hotmrs. We want him to supplement our reports on cotton 
and rice. 
The Cuatrman. Why do you want them supplemented? It is sim- 
ply another estimate. 
Mr. Hotes. Yes; but it is the best estimate we get at the time 
there is anything that affects the crop. Our work in grain and cotton 
with the men we have had has been so very successful—our field 
work—that we feel that that should be increased even at the expense 
of something else. 
The Cuarrman. In grain and cotton, how much discrepancy has there 
-been between the final reports of these men and the statistics gathered 
before the report? Have they simply confirmed it? 
Mr. Houmes. If they do not confirm it, they giye us their reasons 
