Ar,nT< I'lrrrLM, APiMiopniATiox bii.u vci. 415 



lOvory month. hnseA on returns from Mo.iMK) farnirn*. wr aro rrpctrt- 

 in«; the nioiillily cliMnj^oH in niinilnTs «>f liv«' jjtnrk on n r«ti<» l)n>iiii. 

 This work was slaitcd oxpcriniontallv nhmit four yrurs ap». liul we 

 have startod into it on n much wiifor scah* huwo tho HrHt of .luly 

 under the new appropriation. These monthly ••hanj/t-. 



Mr. Am)i;i:s<)N (interposinj»i. ho yoti mean monthly <inin^eH m 

 hog piochietion ( 



Air. Callanukk. Ves; we report the monthly ehan^eH in hoj? pro- 

 duction, as well as for cattle an<l sheep. Here is what we do: We 

 have tlu'se .■>().()()() farmer^ who report to us once a month how many 

 «attle, sheep, ami swine they have on theiv farms on the 1st i»f the 

 month and how many at the close «)f the month; how nniny wore 

 horn duriiii; tjie month, how many were sold, and how manv were 

 slau«;hti're(i. and how many died. From that we are ijettm;; an inde.x 

 lunnher show in<]j the ratio of tlu' number horn, died. sold, purrhased, 

 and slau»;htere(l hears to the total numher on the farm. It is really 

 a sort of hookkeepincr account. Tliis work will he expanded <'ventu- 

 ally to include ahout tit), ()()() farmers rep()rtinj^ onc«' a month as to 

 what happens on their farms. That will j;ive us a very splendid 

 index oinl oven the exnerimental data tliat lias come in so far lias 

 been very valual)le on lioi^s, Ixmu*; home out hy the receipts at the 

 stockyards. ^V(> also ask hoAv nuiny sows are hrcil each month, and 

 we have found fpiite a correlation between the numher of sows bred 

 and what goes to market some months later. We feel that is going 

 to become a very important index for tlie future and enable the live- 

 stock producers to get a picture of what is happening and thereby 

 determine whether they should increase or decrease their herds; in 

 fact, some of them are already using the data, but we are not giving 

 much j)ublicity to the work until we can dev«dop it further. 



Mr. Anderson. When tliey get to using it, tliat will modify your 

 returns, will it not ? 



Mr. Callander. Tlie thing about it is tliis: A great mass of farmers 

 will probablv not pay much attention to it. at least for some years, 

 but there will be fjuite a percentage of the farmer's who will profit by 

 it from the start; enough to tend to stabilize the movement to 

 market. 



lAKM PRICES OF LIVE STOCK. 



Then we are estimating the fann prices of live stock. We have 

 been doing that for a great many years and. of coui"se, will continue. 



We are also planning to make and we are making right now — the 

 report output will come out on December 10 — an estimate of the 

 number of sheep 



Mr. Ani>erson (interposing). Before vou go into that, 1 have 

 always had a great deal of doubt about the accuracy of your intimate 

 of farm prices, and I would like tt) know how you get at them i 



Mr. ('all.\ndet{. We do not say tlu\v represent actual prices, but 

 our contention has always been that thev give us the trends from 

 montli to month and from year to year. They are gotten in this way : 

 We have a corps of price reporters and the number runs up to 1 .000 

 ])er State: in souk^ States we have as many as 1. ()()() reporters who 

 report the average farm prices that are bieiig received in their terri- 

 tory. Now. what makes the figures a{)pear to be off sometimes is 

 that these figures come from importing areas as well a.s from areas 

 o'jQo^ 22 27 



