404 HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 
organization. In most of the States they have State secretaries of 
agriculture, but they are not our employees. 
Mr. Haucen. Does not Mr. Sage do your work for Des Moines? 
Mr. Hoitmes. Mr. Sage is our State man. 
Mr. Lever. Is there any tendency on the part of the county -corre- 
spondents to underestimate the acreage of a crop? 
Mr. Hotmes. Sometimes they underestimate and sometimes they 
overestimate. 
Mr. Lever. No tendency to underestimate ¢ 
Mr. Hotmess. No general tendency in any one direction. 
Mr. Bowrs. Do you think the general tendency for each man is to 
do the best he can in making a candid report? 
Mr. Hortmgs. I think they do. JI think they are all perfectly honest. 
The Cuarrman. If they are, is it simply a matter of judgment?. 
Mr. Grarr. You do not think there is a tendency for your local 
crop of reporters to underestimate 4 
Mr. Hotes. There may be a tendency. among a certain number of 
them to do that, but there is just such a tendency on the part of a lot 
of other correspondents to overestimate. 
Mr. Burzeson. As a matter of fact, now, do not your local reporters 
feel a pride in their estimates and try to make them as accurate as 
possible? 
Mr. Hotmegs. They try to make them as accurate as possible. Asa 
matter of fact we get reports on cotton not only from the producer, 
but from the manufacturer also; from the miller; from the ginner, 
and the railroads. 
Mr. Haucen. Is it possible that these local reporters have a pride 
in their business, and not discover the difference between spring wheat 
and winter wheat, as you discovered in Nebraska? 
Mr. Houmes. Acreage is a very weak point in all systems of esti- 
mating crops. They would report a decrease of 2 per cent, when it 
ought to have been 25. 
Mr. Haucen. There could not have been very much pride in those 
reports with that discrepancy. 
‘ ae CuarrMan. It was more a knowledge of arithmetic in that case, 
reckon. 
Mr. Hormes. They decrease those areas almost unconsciously; and 
they put in winter wheat in the place of spring wheat, and forget all 
about it; forget to report it, perhaps. 
aes: Is there anything further of which you desire to 
speak # 
er. Homes. Not that I desire to speak of; no. 
Thereupon the committee adjourned until 2 o'clock p. m. 
AFTER RECESS. 
en committee met, Hon. KE. Stevens Henry (acting chairman) in the 
chair. 
Mr. Overton W. Price, Assistant Forester of the Bureau of Forestry 
of the Agricultural Department, appeared before the committee. 
STATEMENT OF MR. OVERTON W. PRICE. 
Mr. Henry (acting chairman). The committee will come to order, 
and we will hear Mr. Price. 
Mr. Price. Mr. Chairman, the marked characteristic of the Bureau 
