stician adds, in suppressing truth on the one hand
or exaggerating the losses on the other. One feature of corn-growing in
1883 should prove a lesson to the farmers of the country; that is, the
general use of seed corn in the West, grown in lower latitudes. The
planting of Nebraska seed in Minnesota and Kansas seed in Illinois, has
demonstrated the folly of attempting to acclimatize the Southern maize
in the more Northern districts. Much loss from frost would have been
avoided had the seed been carefully selected from the best corn grown in
the immediate neighborhood.

The wheat crop is estimated, as before, slightly in excess of
400,000,000 bushels.

The cotton product, as shown by the December returns, is about 6,000,000
bales. There will be another investigation after the close of the cotton
harvest and the shipment of a large portion of the crop, when precise
results will be approached more nearly than has been possible hitherto.

The Department evidently feels a little "nettled" over the criticisms
that have been made upon its estimates of the last two corn crops. Again
we must protest that the amount of harvested corn in the West will fall
considerably below Mr. Dodge's figures. Whether or not the Department
sees fit to "reduce the product to the equivalent of merchantable corn"
such an estimate would be of interest, and when it gives the result of
the feeding quality of the corn, there will be something of a basis
furnished for such a calculation, especially as we shall have by that
time a pretty accurate account of the exported corn of the crop of 1883
and the amount "in sight," as the grain merchants say. It is true that
there is nothing gained to consumers by "suppressing truth on the one
hand or exaggerating losses on the other" but there is something lost to
consumers by overestimating yields at about the time the harvest is
ready and when speculators can use Government estimates to force down
prices.

The statistical machinery of the Department of Agriculture is far from
perfect, but it is the best the Government has supplied it with, and it
is not wise or fair to criticise its estimates too severely, based, as
they often must be, upon inadequate returns. The most that can be said
is that the Department should be exceedingly careful not to err on the
side that may result in injury to the producers, for, as we understand
it, it was created solely to advance their interests.

CHICAGO IN 1883.