254 COTTON 
ber of the Board, each individual computes sep- 
arately his own estimate of cotton for each State. 
When this is done comparisons are made and dis- 
cussions are engaged in before the final figures 
are decided upon. Each and every township, 
county, and State is properly “weighted” so as to 
give the arithmetical value which the acreage in 
that area demands. On the completion of this 
work, the report is ready to be given out, and goes 
with lightning speed to almost every part of the 
world. 
HOW THE COTTON REPORT IS ISSUED 
Reports on cotton thus prepared by the Crop 
Reporting Board are issued on the 3d of each 
month during the growing season. In order that 
the information contained in these reports may 
be made simultaneously throughout the entire 
United States, and that one part of the country may 
not have any advantage over another, they are 
handed simultaneously at a given hour (as for ex- 
ample, at 12 o’clock noon or 4 p.m.) on report days, 
to all applicants, and are given to the Western 
Union ‘Telegraph Company and the Postal Tele- 
graph Cable Company for transmission to the ex- 
changes and to the press. These companies have 
reserved their lines at a designated time, and by 
use of a“ flash”? forward immediately the figures of 
most interest. A mimeograph statement for com- 
parative purposes, containing such estimates of 
condition or actual production, together with the 
corresponding estimates of former years, is prepared 
and sent to a mailing list of exchanges, newspaper 
publications, and individuals. The same after- 
noon printed cards containing the essential facts 
