STATISTICS OF GRAIN PRODUCTION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2107, 15 June 1907, Page 3

STATISTICS OF GRAIN PRODUCTION.

Ihe North Canterbury Conference of the Farmers’ Union having declared that tho Government returns of grain production are collected according to an unsatisfactory and misleading system, a Christchurch Press reporter called at the local offices of the Agricultural Department to inquire as to tho methods actually employed. Ho was told that statistics of the areas sown and intended to be sow'll are collected in October and November. Then in February the Departmental officers throughout Canterbury forward to tho district headquarters thoir estimates of tho yield of wheat, oats, and barley. From theso reports the Department strikes an estimate, which is published early in March. The work of compiling tho statistics of the actual production is; begun in May. The figures of the threshing yields are collected from the farmers themselves, in every riding in every county in Canterbury. For the provincial district alone no fewer then 15,000 of these returns were received this year. The returns have been compiled and se"nt to Wellington, and their publication now may be looked for at any time. It was pointed out to the reporter that if returns of grain threshed were obtained from the threshing machine owners and made the basis of the statistics, as suggested by the Far•ntelrs’ Union, the results would be unsatisfactory. In the first- place a quantity of each season’s crop is not threshed at the time, but is put into sf|ack. Meanwhile, part of a previous year’s harvest, that was stacked, is threshed. There would thus be a loophole for considerable inaccuracy, as the quantity put in stack varies from year to year. This year, for instance, ow'ing to the dry weather, the greater part of the wheat was not stacked at all, but was threshed out of stook, whereas it was quite common to put more than half the crop into stack., If the threshing returns had .been taken, it would have been made to appear that this year’s harvest was greater than last year’s. A well-known Canterbury farmer fell into a similar error in some statistics which lie published some time ago. No other system of grain statistics in tho world, the reporter was assured, is so complete as that operated by the New Zealand Department of Agriculture. Canada has only 1500 correspondents for the whole Dominion, while there are as many as that for Canterbury alone. Finally, it was stated that the returns are published solely for the benefit of the farmer. Merchants are in a position to get their own information, and the [qbject of the Government is to put the farmers on an equality with them in this respect. If any better method of collecting and compiling the statistics is known, the Department would be glad to hear of it.