AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2360, 16 January 1915, Page 10

AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS.

NEW METHODS OP COLLECTION. The following memorandum relatinK to the collection of nßricultural and pastoral statistics lias been supphed Uy tli© Prime Minister:— In tho ordinary course returns .-of actual yields will be collected from, farmers through the post in May post, but recognising the.vital importance,to the oountry 'at tho present _ time ' or keeping in close touch with the harvest produotion and obtaining early and.reliable figures as to- the "wheat yields, the Government has just approved proposals made by the Government Statistician (Mr.' Malcolm Fraser) for the collection of monthly returns fronr all threshing- mill owners operating throughout the Dominion. Regulations are now being issued under the Census and Statistics. Act making it obligatory oji threshing mill owners to furnish these returns, which, will be required to show the actual quantity threshed, the name and address of the - for whom threshed, and the approximate acreage from which cut. The returns are to be'collected each month, beginning with the present month (January), and will be supplementary to, and not in substitution for, the returns of actual yields collected from the farmers in May. The Government will thus be kept informed month by month as_. tho harvest progresses, of the actual yields being obtained, and be able to take any action which may -'be considered necessary to meet the country's requirements in good time. . The collection of these returns co-or-dinates with the new scheme for the collection of the agricultural and pastoral statistics, which has" been approved by the Government and which will come into, operation next season. The new scheme; follows the lines of similar .collections in Australia where, the services of the police are utilised as collectors, and is-in accord with the recommendations- made by the Government Statistician in his. report laid before Parliament last session. The present system under which the returns are collected through the post has not given satisfactory results. Apart from the. difference as to the medium of collection of the prinoipal particulars, the essential difference so far as grain crops aro concerned will lie in the fact that the areas in grain will be collected after the harvest, instead of in the spring. Estimates as to the spring sowings of wheat and oats will still be made from returns collected through the post, but itho actual areas harvested will be obtained with the actual yieldi after the harvest.