Abstract
The present paper deals with a modification on the selection of linear systematic sample, consequently the proposed method is called modified linear systematic sampling. The performances of the modified linear systematic sampling are assessed with that of simple random sampling and the linear systematic sampling for certain hypothetical populations as well as for certain natural populations. As a result, it is observed that the modified linear systematic sample mean performs better than the simple random sample mean and the usual systematic sample mean for estimating the population mean in the presence of linear trend among the population values. Further improvements are achieved by introducing Yates type end corrections. The applications of the proposed sampling scheme in constructing mating designs are also discussed with an example.