CROP REPORTS, HOW AND WHY COMPILED. 



(By W. L. Nelson, Assistant Secretary, Missouri State Board of Agriculture.) 



Bookkeeper for a inillion farmers— that 's what the Secretary of the 

 Missouri State Board of Agriculture really is, although keeping books 

 is ouly a part of his business. Each year the Secretary arranges for 

 and directs more than 250 farmers' institutes, issues a monthly bulletin 

 on some agricultural subject and answers several thousand inquiries 

 that have to do with almost every phase of farm life. 



As the farmers' bookkeeper, it is the Secretary's duty to issue 

 monthly crop reports during the seeding and growing seasons, and an 

 annual report at the end of each year. The monthly reports, always 

 made public at exactly 12 o'clock noon on the first Saturday in the 

 month, wdth the exception of the month of December, when the report 

 is issued on the second Saturday, are issued in April, May, June, July, 

 August, September, October and December. A special wheat and oats 

 report is issued in November. The material for all these reports is 

 furnished by some 600 crop correspondents, representing every section 

 and every county in the State. These reporters are representative 

 farmers, chosen because of their honesty and ability to make true and 

 concise reports, and because of their interest in agriculture. They serve 

 the State without pay, receiving in return for their services only the 

 crop reports and other publications of the Board of Agriculture. 



On next to the last Thursday in each month preceding the month in 

 which a crop report is to be issued, a list of questions, to be answered, 

 and from which the next report will be made up, is mailed to each 

 correspondent, who is advised as to when his report must be in. As 

 soon as a sufficient number of reports have been received at the Secre- 

 tary' office in Columbia, the work of tabulation is commenced and con- 

 tinues until all of the reports are in or until the time set for "closing 

 the entries." 



It is a noteworthy fact, and one that goes far toward proving the 

 reliability of the reports, that when a dozen or more returns have been 

 received from any section, the average of these may be made and will, 

 after all the correspondents have been heard from, be found to vary but 

 little, if any, from the final figure. 



Another proof of the trastworthiness of the crop reports, both 

 State and National, is that with a different set of correspondents, and 

 in some respects a different system of collecting the data, there is sel- 

 dom, if ever, any great difference. For example, the government re- 

 port places the value of Missouri's wheat crop for the year 1909 at $29,- 



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