high, the total for the ten months being 9.62 inches higher than the average annual for ten years.

Table 10 contains the rainfall for certain selected representative stations for these ten months. The average is from 6.67 inches at Hooker to 60.26 inches at McAlester, the record for Hooker covering only seven months, the months of January, February and May being absent.

TABLE 10.-Rainfall at certain stations during first ten months, 1908.

PART IX

STATISTICS

Statistics showing the total population of the State in 1908, bycounties and townships; acreage, production and value of farm crops for the year 1906, for the Territory of Oklahoma, and for the year 1907 for the new State; the number and value of live stock on March 1, 1908, as shown by the complete assessors' returns for the years ending March 1, 1907, and March 1, 1908, together with crop estimates for the year 1908.

INTRODUCTION.

To establish a basis for a complete system of statistics and an informa tion bureau for a great new State as is our own, is no small undertaking; in fact' few states have ever entered the Union with as complete a history of her resources as has Oklahoma, and it is the privilege of the State Board of Agriculture, in presenting the following statistical information, to make it the most thorough and reliable possible, and to make it serve as the basis for a more comprehensive story of our resources in the future.

On the Indian Territory side of the State no definite information as to the agricultural resources were available, aside from the Federal Census of 1900, while in Oklahoma Territory a pretty complete record of statistics had been brought together by the Territorial Board of Agriculture, up to the time of statehood, on November 16, 1907.

The difficult task incumbent upon the State Board of Agriculture is to make a complete record of the State's resources, with scarely a foundation upon which to build, and to continue without interruption the careful and painstaking work of the Board of Agriculture for the old established counties of the State. This we have endeavored to do, hence the submission of tatistical tables for the Territory for 1906, and for the State covering the year 1907. This makes a complete statistical history from 1904, for the Territory, and a solid foundation for the State.

VALUE OF STATISTICS.

The value of statistics to the producing and consuming classes is no longer the disputed question that it was in former years. Strange to say, a prejudice still exists in the minds of some producers of agricultural products to such an extent that they would seek to hamper the State or Federal departments in their work, giving as their reason that they do not propose to furnish information for the use of the speculator and manipulator of market prices.

Government and state reports are a protection against the speculator, instead of aiding him in the accomplishment of his purposes, and are the greatest factors in keeping a check on wild speculation and the manipulating of the crop reports. Farmers, especially, lose sight of the fact that the speculators and large manipulators of market prices are in closer touch with agricultural conditions than any State or Federal Department can hope to be. They employ paid agents to secure for them definite information as to the acreage and conditions of growing crops, and it is a short-sighted policy for the farmer when he has a chance to protect himself, to refuse information to the State or Federal Department whereby his report will serve as a check upon all false and speculative reports.

Instances, too numerous to mention, where, were it not for the exact conditions being reported by the Federal Department, the prices of the various crops would have been put so low that the farmer could not realize the cost of production from his crop.

But the question of price is only a part of the value of agricultural statistics. The State Board of Agriculture, in its Press Bulletin No. 2, issued under date of May 1, 1908, referring to crop reports, pointed out that it was not

their province to carry on as complete a system of crop reporting as was carried on by the United States Department of Agriculture, for two reasons: First, it would be a useless duplication of work, and, second, Oklahoma as yet cuts but little figure in the market centers as a crop producing State. True, Oklahoma produces a vast amount of agricultural products, but a single crop failure in Oklahoma alone does not materially affect the markets of the world. To illustrate: Oklahoma, in the fall of 1907, sowed only 4.4 per cent of the wheat acreage of the United States, as against Kansas's 19.1 per cent. In other words Kansas has sown 4.3 times as many acres as has Oklahoma; hence, it is apparent that a wheat failure in Kansas would have 4.3 times the effect on the world's markets as Oklahoma would have. Thus, statistics of crop acreages and productions are a means of education, allowing the comparison of this State with other states as a power and force in the world's production. The law of supply and demand governs the price of agricultural products, and by a system of reliable statistics we are enabled to take an inventory, as it were, of our power as producers and consumers.

The State Board of Agriculture needs reliable statistics as to production of farm crops to enable it to fulfill its mission in disseminating timely information for the benefit of the farmers. This can be illustrated briefly by a study of the subject of broom corn in this State. It is a well known fact that the climate and rainfall in western and northwestern Oklahoma is especially adapted to the growing and curing of first-class brush. Brush grown with care and attention and properly marketed sells on the same market with that raised in the famous broom corn district of Illinois, and brings highly remunerative prices, and yet the average price received for broom corn, as shown by the following tables, was only $71.08 per ton, producing a net return of only $14.07 per acre. Raising brush at this rate is not profitable, and many farmers, having repeatedly lost money on their crops, are quitting the crop. Statistics show a decrease in the acreage of broom corn for the past four years. A careful study of the conditions reveals the fact that the farmer and buyer are responsible for the loss of interest in this important crop. Reliable statistics would be of incalculable value in reviving interest in this crop, and would be worth more to the producers of this State than would be expended by the State Board of Agriculture in compiling statistics in the coming twenty years.

Statistics are valuable to the citizens of a State in furnishing them with an inventory of their resources, thereby enabling them to compare the various sections of the State as to their productive powers. This is a necessary adjunct to any growing State. To furnish accurate information will build up a responsible citizenship, and, on the other hand, resources overestimated will do more harm to a State than bad laws.

The value of statistics to a thinking people cannot be told in a few words. Their virtues have been reiterated for many decades, and the prejudice against their publication and dissemination gradually decreasing.

METHOD OF GATHERING STATISTICS AND SCOPE OF THE WORK.

Oklahoma is fortunate in having what is considered the most practical method of collecting statistics that it is possible to obtain at this time. An annual enumeration is made by the tax assessors, by means of a house to house canvass, gathering on blanks furnished by the State Auditor such information on schedules as outlined and required by the State Board of Agriculture. The census, or enumeration of the population, however, is made only in each even