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southern section, or vice versa, the result is to modify the percentage of the total crop harvested in a particular month. It is not likely, however, that such changes from normal are often so marked as materially to alter the averages here given. You will observe that the important crops are usually harvested by the end of the year.

TABLE I.-Percentage of crops of United States harvested monthly

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The CHAIRMAN. Is that chart published by the Department of Agriculture, or in a separate publication? How did you get that before? Is it published?

Mr. OLSEN. I have here a copy of the Monthly Crop Reporter, which contains it.

The CHAIRMAN. It is rather difficult to put a chart of that character in the record, and I thought if we could obtain it somewhere else that would save publishing it. If it is published in the Crop Reporter we might save that amount of printing, and perhaps it would be as intelligible as if we printed it in the record here.

Mr. OLSEN. I think that this will answer the questions with reference to December.

There are some questions that have been raised as to the harvesting dates of various crops. We have in this table the months when the crops are harvested.

The CHAIRMAN. In regard to that, have you taken into consideration the opinion of the Census Bureau, or ascertained what their idea is as to the taking of this census, in regard to the date? Have you consulted them with regard to the time of the taking of the census, or are you simply expressing your own ideas about such a date?

Mr. OLSEN. I am addressing myself to the one specific point of the date when you can get an adequate census. I think that the crops are sufficiently harvested by December 1.

This other question you raise I will be very glad to consider a little bit later on.

The CHAIRMAN. In connection with Mr. Jacobstein's question of the expense, if the agricultural and the population census could be taken the same date you would certainly have less expense. That would lessen the expense to a very large degree, if we could take the agricultural census and the population census at the same time, and the committee would like to have some information in regard to that. Of course, we can go on and spend any amount of money in getting every detail that can be thought of by anybody in the United States; even take a census of the beehives, if it seemed necessary. But, it seems to me that we should keep this expense down.

Mr. RANKIN. Have we not a census of the beehives?

The CHAIRMAN. I hope so. I hope they have it in my district. Mr. RANKIN. We have the greatest apiary in the world in my district. I want to ask you-if you will pardon me, I do not want your corn and wheat and tobacco growers to think that I am trying to monopolize the time of the committee, or am interested only in one crop-but I am talking about the part of this census that I think I know the most about. I see that you have the cotton, for instance, shows there from January to April, there are four-tenths of 1 per cent harvested.

Mr. OLSEN. Yes.

Mr. RANKIN. All right. In June, the harvest is none; in July, 1.4 per cent; in August, 11.5 per cent; September, 31.6 per cent; October, 34.4 per cent; November, 16 per cent; and December, 4.7 per cent. That makes 105 per cent, when you add that up?

Mr. OLSEN. No; that is four-tenths of 1 per cent; but you see here findicating on chart].

Mr. RANKIN. Here is what I want to ask you. You show simply the percentage of cotton harvested in November and December. Is that cotton picked during that month? Is that what it means; is that what you mean by that? Or is that the amount of cotton ginned?

Mr. OLSEN. We mean the picking of it. That is not the amount ginned. That is the amount picked.

Mr. RANKIN. How much of it is ginned in December that is picked in December?

Mr. OLSEN. Well, you are asking how much is picked in November; and how much is ginned in the month of November?

Mr. RANKIN. Yes.

Mr. OLSEN. I could not say that offhand. I think that I can answer what you have in mind, if you will give me just a second.

This [indicating on chart] represents the usual situation. Now, you will have variations in situations dependent upon the size of the crop, or the earliness of the crop, or the lateness of the crop; that is very true.

Remember that this is an indication of the harvesting of the cotton crop, on the average.

Then we have got the ginnings; they give the yield most accurately. That takes care of the production.

Mr. RANKIN. I think that I can ask questions and show what I want to know better than you can forestall me.

Mr. OLSEN. All right.

Mr. RANKIN. The 1st of November you have in the field, a year like this, 2,000,000 bales of cotton.

Would you not have about that?

Mr. OLSEN. The 1st of November?
Mr. RANKIN. Yes; 2,000,000 bales.

Mr. OLSEN. That is on a basis of 16,000,000.
Mr. RANKIN. An average year since the war.

Mr. OLSEN. Yes.

Mr. RANKIN. You would have about 2,000,000 bales of cotton. Now, you show that they have gathered 43 per cent of the corn in November and December; is that right?

Mr. OLSEN. That is right.

Mr. LOZIER. A total of 54.2 per cent?

Mr. RANKIN. That is right, is it not, in November, that you gathered 43.3 per cent?

Mr. OLSEN. Yes, sir.

Mr. RANKIN. All right. In December you gather approximately 11 per cent of the corn, which would be about 3,000,000,000 bushels of the corn made in the United States?

Mr. OLSEN. That is good-sized crop.

Mr. RANKIN. That is when we make a good crop.

Mr. OLSEN. That is a real good crop.

Mr. RANKIN. So then you have 300,000,000 bushels of corn still in the field ungathered and unsalable at any time during November? Mr. OLSEN. This [indicating on chart] is December 1. That would be in between.

Mr. RANKIN. Only about 20 per cent of the crop is marketed.
Mr. OLSEN. That is about right.

Mr. RANKIN. All right. You have half of the crop of corn to be marketed unaccounted for.

Mr. OLSEN. That all depends on whether or not the harvest of corn is early or late.

Mr. RANKIN. I am taking your average year, your chart; your figures. According to your figures you have half of the corn in the field.

Mr. OLSEN. You mean have half of the corn to be marketed; we have an amount equivalent to that, possibly.

Mr. RANKIN. Do you not think that the farmer raising that corn would be entitled to a full census of the amount of corn produced? Mr. OLSEN. But, the point is that they have harvested the bulk of their corn and have a very good idea as to how the yield is going to run, and they will be able to give a much better estimate than they can four months later. They can give a better estimate of the yield than they could later.

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Mr. RANKIN. You think then that they will forget; that they will forget between November and April the amount of their production? Do you not think that they would be able to make their estimates more accurately than the department would be able to, guessing at it in November?

Mr. OLSEN. This census would be taken in December.
Mr. RANKIN. I do not understand you.

Mr. OLSEN. When you go to the individual farmer and he has harvested most of his crop, he has a very good basis for giving you the balance that is on the farm.

Mr. RANKIN. Now, do you not know, as a matter of fact, in the months that you indicate there, that in the month of December, the cotton farmers and the corn farmers are all very, very, busy in the field gathering their crops, and that is the most inopportune time to take a census?

Mr. OLSEN. I would answer that by saying that I think you will find April 1 they are just as busy, because

The CHAIRMAN. Are not all of the crops in on April 1?

Mr. OLSEN. This is a harvesting not a planting chart.

The CHAIRMAN. I say "in," gathered, using "in" for gathering. Mr. OLSEN. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. That is the sense in which I use "in."

Mr. RANKIN. As a matter of fact, the wheat growers have planted their wheat before the 1st of April, have they not?

Mr. OLSEN. That would depend upon the season. In certain parts of the country they are through probably, while in other parts they are not.

Mr. RANKIN. Nearly all of the crops that you have indicated on that chart would be planted by the 1st of April, except possibly cotton?

Mr. OLSEN. And, corn in the northern part of the country would not be planted.

Mr. RANKIN. You do not mean to say that the farmers have not finished sowing wheat by that time?

Mr. OLSEN. In some sections you will have the wheat sowed.
Mr. RANKIN. The corn?

Mr. OLSEN. You will have corn in in other sections, and flax, etc.
Mr. THURSTON. Mr. Chairman, could I interrupt?

The CHAIRMAN. Yes.

Mr. THURSTON. What is the proportion of fall wheat, and what is the proportion of spring wheat?

Mr. OLSEN. On the average about 40,000,000 acres of fall sown wheat and about 20,000,000 acres of spring wheat.

So, it is fully two-thirds fall-sown wheat.

Mr. THURSTON. Of course, the planting of that wheat would be completed by April.

Mr. LOZIER. Do you mean to say that all of the corn crop is gathered by December 31?

Mr. OLSEN. Yes.

Mr. LOZIER. You have not made any provision or given any credit for any corn crop being gathered after January 1?

Mr. OLSEN. This is, as explained, a chart or a table showing the usual time of harvesting of crops. As I explained, you will have instances when there will be some harvested after January 1, but customarily, this would show the condition.

Mr. LOZIER. I understood you to say that that chart represented the usual time for the gathering of the corn crop.

Mr. OLSEN. According to our best information and-
Mr. LOZIER. Where do you get those statistics?

Mr. OLSEN. They are based on inquiries that we made. I do not know how many reports.

Mr. LOZIER. According to that table, 45.8 per cent of all of the corn grown in the United States, is gathered before November 1. Do you know, as a matter of fact, that practically, throughout the great Corn Belt of the Middle West, that the corn, three years out of four, matures slowly, hardens slowly. That warm weather continues until the middle of November; the rainfall in November and December is very frequently heavy and the farmers are prevented from gathering their corn crop until midwinter. They can not get into the field because of rain and mud and as a result can not gather much of their corn before the middle of November, and as a matter of fact, actual experience shows that three-fourths of all of the crop of corn in the Middle West is gathered after January 1.

Mr. OLSEN. That does not correspond with our figures, or the facts, as we know them. I would be very glad to have Mr.

Mr. THURSTON. You mean that three-fourths of the corn is gathered after January 1?

Mr. LOZIER. Yes, sir; three-fourths of the corn is gathered after January 1.

Mr. OLSEN. That does not correspond with our observation and our figures.

Mr. LOZIER. Probably I should say one-half of the corn crop in the Corn Belt is gathered after January 1. It is true that in the Middle West, during the last few months, the farmers have not been able to get out into their fields to gather their corn because of rains, and muddy fields.

Mr. OLSEN. Well, that may be the condition in some instances. Mr. LOZIER. And, is it not a fact that in many instances the corn matures slowly and if rains come in the Middle West we are prevented from gathering the corn and binning it, and the rains prevent the farmer from getting out in the field?

Mr. OLSEN. I think that that would be true in some cases.

Mr. LOZIER. And often the farmers can not get into the field during the months of November and December.

Mr. THURSTON. Mr. Lozier, in Iowa, the farmer that did not gather his corn by January 1 is regarded as a very slow, shiftless farmer. I am quite sure that the table there will not reflect the true facts as to the amount of corn gathered either in September or October, as far as the Corn Belt is concerned.

I believe that it is generally claimed that substantially 50 per cent to 60 per cent of the corn produced in the State of Iowa would be gathered in November.

Mr. LOZIER. My observation has been, from living 62 years in the Corn Belt, that not only in Missouri, but in other States, as a rule you can not get into your fields and gather your corn and bin it before the 15th of November or the 1st of December, for the reason that we have copious rainfalls throughout the Corn Belt during that time, which prevents the farmers getting into their fields. You can not get into the field and gather the corn, because you will mire down.

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