COTTON 253 



eluded average yield of cotton per acre, abandoned 

 acreage, and the cost of picking. 



HOW COTTON REPORTS ARE HANDLED 



All reports dealing with cotton statistics are sent 

 by telegraph (in cipher) or by mail, so as to reach 

 Washington, where the Crop Reporting Board 

 meets, by the first day of each month of the months 

 in which such reports are made. 



The reports of the State Field Agents and State 

 Statistical Agents are sent to the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture in specially prepared envelopes, and deliv- 

 ered to him by the postal authorities in sealed mail 

 pouches. These as they arrive are placed in a 

 safe located in the private office of the Secretary, 

 to which no one else has access, until the day on 

 which the report is issued. The combination of the 

 safe moreover, is known only to the Secretary of 

 Agriculture and the Assistant Secretary of Agri- 

 culture. 



HOW THE REPORTS ARE PREPARED 



The reports previously sent in are now opened 

 and final results made up by a Crop Reporting 

 Board, composed of the Chief of the Bureau of 

 Statistics as chairman and four individual members 

 selected from the Statisticians and officers of the 

 Department. For each month there is an incom- 

 ing member, not on the sitting of the estimating 

 committee immediately previous. On the report 

 day, this Board with several computors meets in 

 the office of the Statistician which is kept locked, 

 no one being allowed to enter or to leave it. All 

 telephones are disconnected. 



When all data has been placed before each mem- 



