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Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3173, 6 April 1889, Page 2

A somewhat singular statement: •with regard to the collection of agricultural statistics las recently appeared iit several newspapers, all of which apparently obtained their information from the one source. It is asserted, Ist, that the estimates furnished by farmers are mere guesses of the wildest and most inaccurate nature; 2nd, that" graingrowers have expressed regret at having unintentionally misled the collectors, as they found that their yield was enormously greater owing to the favorable character of the season than they had ever dreamed of getting" (sic); 3rd, that one man who had estimated his wheat at 22 bushels, per acre had got 45, and another who had put his -oats at 40, got 70; 4th, that a great deal of difficulty has been experienced by the collectors 'in inducing farmers to make a full and true declaration of the live stock in thiir possession. It would be a matter of considerable difficulty to get together another set of absurdities that would rival tho above. The only color of common sense that is to bo found in them is in the first paragraph, because some of the farmers havo certainly not finished threshing in the month of March, during which the statistics are usually collected. There is, however, a very good reason why they should not be got later, in the fact that the financial year of the colony ends with that month, and it is of some importance tlmt the estimates of the products of the colony should be published together with its trade and revenue return 1 , With regard to the second assertion, we take leave to doubt whether any farmer in his sober 6enfo3 has over expressed regret at having misled the collector, The farmer is only asked to furnish an estimate as to the quantity of grain ho has grown, As long as that estimate is honest, he need not trouble himself as to whether the threshing machine has converted his 22 into 45, or vice versa; nor is it at all likely that his amended return would be considered. Then, as to the statement that one farmer got 45 bushels of wheat where be expected only 22, and another 70 of oats where he looked for 40, there is not a fanner in the Wairarapa who would not ridicule the very idea of such a miscalculation being possible. Some time ago we published a pretty full statoment of the area which farmers had under crop in the neighborhood of Masterton, together with the estimated yield of grain, With the exception of a few farms at Te Oro Ore, where tho wheat yield has proved somewhat disappointing, the results have in almost every instance gone to within about two bushels of the estimate. It would be a curious sort of a crop indeed that could not bo estimated to within five bushels per acre. But the height of absurdity is probably reached in the statement.that farmers have been found reluctant to give information as to the quantity of live stock in their possession, This will be readily seen when it is considered that the agricultural statistics do got inoludo livo stock at all. This year it has been deemed advisable to add dairy cows, but animals of no kind are evon alluded to beyond this, Tailed ou is a purely imaginary acoount of formers' objections, and the warnings given them by the collectors, Since Mark Twain's account of how he edited an agricultural paper, nothing more humorous in this line than the article alluded to has coffle under our notice,