COTTON 
251 
ports may not mislead them into early sales at 
prices wrongfully made too low. 
6. To create confidence, that sales and consign- 
ments by producers may be made more freely, 
that dealers may more safely conduct their busi- 
ness with lower handling charges, and that spin- 
ners may more freely purchase stocks to hold, 
thus adding certainty and stability to business, 
that they may work on a less speculative basis, and 
thus bring more equitable returns from labor 
expenditure to all interested persons. 
7. To make reports so frequently and to give 
facts so soon after changes in prospective condi- 
tions occur, or so soon after actual yields are 
gathered, that there may be the least possible ele- 
ment of uncertainty, of speculative conditions, to 
remove prices from their normal economic place. 
HOW COTTON STATISTICS ARE GATHERED 
The large body of people concerned with the 
gathering of cotton statistics may be grouped into 
the five following classes : 
1. The State Statistical Agent and corps of aids. 
2. Three Cotton Special Field Agents. 
3. The County Agent for the Department. 
4. The Township Agents for the Department. 
5. Individual reports of cotton farmers. 
The State Statistical Agent is a paid employee 
of the Department who reports to the Bureau of 
Statistics the information which he obtains from 
tabulations that are sent direct to him by his corps 
of aids in the cotton counties of his State. These 
aids are selected because of their qualifications as 
farmers of judicial mind and individual integrity. 
This part of the crop-reporting service is one of 
