COTTON 253 
cluded 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- 
