INDEX NUMBERS OF PRICES PAID TO PRODUCERS OF FARM 
PRODUCTS IN THE UNITED STATES. 
The price of each, farm product in each month as given in Table XYII is 
divided by the five-year average before the war for that product. The resulting 
index numbers are given in Table XTIII. pages 47 to 55. 
These index numbers may be compared directly with the general price level 
as shown in Table II. page 3, and may be compared with each other, or with 
prices of any other commodities. They are used in making the curves shown in 
figure 13. Yearly averages are given at the end of the table. 
Table XVIII may be continued by obtaining the price of the farm product 
in question from the Monthly Crop Reporter and dividing by the five-year 
average for the same month before the war. as given in Table XVII. 
The weighted average is obtained by multiplying the index number for each 
farm product by the figures given below, adding the results, and dividing by 
100: Corn. 6.1; oats. 2.5: wheat. 12.7: barley. 1; rye. 0.4: buckwheat, 0.2; flax- 
seed, 0.6: beans. 0.7: broom corn. 0.1; cotton, 16.9: cotton seed, 2.3; hay, 2.5; 
timothy seed, 0.1: clover seed, 0.2; cabbage. 0.2; onions, 0.2; potatoes, 3.2; 
sweet potatoes, 0.7: peanuts. 0.4: apples. 3.5: chickens, 1.8: eggs, 4.3; butter, 
11.3; milk cows, 2.4: beef cattle, 7.1: veal calves. 1.2; sheep. 0.8: lambs, 0.8; 
wool, 1.5; hogs, 9.5; horses, 4.8. These weights are based on sales as indicated 
by the Census of 1909. Deductions were made for seed and farm use. In some 
cases one product representative of a class of products is given a weight repre- 
sentative of the class. To be exact, the weighting should change each year and 
each month, but the weighted average figure is little affected by differences in 
the weights. In fact, the unweighted average is nearly always practically the 
same as the weighted. 
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