REPORT OF THE STATISTICIAN. 



457 



Kansas, inclusive, from which comes the corn of commercial distribu- 

 tion, the difference in quantity on hand is not very heavy, while Ohio 

 is credited with little more than half as much as in March, 1883, and 

 Illinois and Indiana, as well as Iowa, have reduced stocks; the increase 

 in Kansas is 25,000,000 bushels. As most of the commercial corn in 

 recent years has come from beyond the Mississippi, the effect of the 

 Kansas and Nebraska surplus is to cheapen the price. So we see that 

 No. 2 mixed was quoted in Chicago on the 1st of March at 53 cents, and 

 in March of 1883 at 50 cents; in Cincinnati, 52 and 50, respectively. 

 In Saint Louis the prices were lower, 49 to 53. In Kansas City, near 

 the heart of the supply, the price is 5 cents lower than in March, 1883 — 

 40 cents instead of 45. 



In studying- crop returns the ever-recurring error of statisticians, for 

 every man is his own statistician nowadays, is the assumption that the 

 crop of the country is controlled by what appears under his own local 

 horizon. The Michigan man therefore thinks there is no sound corn in 

 the country ; the Kansas man may naturally assume that the last was 

 one of the greatest crops of record. The following statement shows 

 what the estimates of the two years make the stock of March in the 



corn-surplus States: 







Stock c 



n hand March 1— 



States. 



1883. 



1884. 





Bushels. 



Percent. 



Bushels. 



Per cent. 





27, 062, 563 

 38, 694, 3 »8 

 67,464. 633 

 52, 646, 280 

 55,011, 100 

 47, 669, 318 

 35, 465, 626 





29 

 36 



15,447,000 

 28, 686, 0U0 

 61,113, 595 



40, 710, 960 

 48, 4 HO, 500 

 72, 576, 37S 



41, 524, 349 



21 







30 







37 



30 







30 

 30 



24 







30 







33 



42 







43 



41 









320, 013, 933 



33 



303, 555, 382 



31.5 





Prices of corn tell the true story of supply. In March, 1881, the 

 price in Chicago was 37 cents when these seven States had a stock of 

 413,000,000 bushels remaining. But in March, J.882, after the disas- 

 trous failure of 1881, the price was 00 cents, with a stock of 200,000,000 

 bushels. In March, 1884, the price was 53 cents, showing that the 

 quantity, in view of the poor quality of a large proportion of unmer- 

 chantable grain, was greatly in excess of the stocks of March, 1882, 

 after the crop failure of 1881. 



PROPORTION MERCHANTABLE. 



It is proper to place on record the fact that the proportion of imma- 

 ture corn Avas twice as large as usual. The frosts of September, 1883, 

 played havoc with the corn of the northern belt, a condensed statement 

 of the results of which may be found in the following table of quantities 

 of merchantable and unmerchantable corn. In no State is the crop of 

 any year perfect. There is a considerable quantity of immature growth, 

 the result of drought, floods, impoverished soil, bad cultivation or no 

 cultivation. In northern regions there is always some loss of late- 

 planted corn from frosts. The proportion of the crop of 1883 reported 



