36 
BULLETIN 1480, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Table 16. 
-Farm prices of apples: Selected illustrations of 
measures of dispersion, and prooaole error 
nze of sample, 
Unit of measure, State, and 
date 
Per bushel : 
New York, October, 1925. _ 
Michigan, October, 1925 ... 
Virginia, October, 1925 
West Virginia, October, 
1925— 
Regular 
Commercial 
Regular and commer- 
cial 
Maryland- 
October, 1925 
March, 1926 
Dec. 1,19252 
Per barrel: 
New York, October, 1925.. 
Michigan, October, 1925... 
Virginia, October, 1925 
West Virginia, October, 
1925— 
Regular 
Commercial 
Regular and commer- 
cial 
Maryland- 
October, 1925 
Dec. 1, 1925 2 
Number 
of reports 
150 
73 
61 
30 
14 
44 
22 
17 
74 
110 
37 
72 
Average 
price 
(arith- 
metic 
mean) 
Standard 
deviation 
of reports 
Coeffi- 
cient of 
varia- 
bility 
Probable 
error of 
the aver- 
age price 
or mean 
Relative 
probable 
error 
Cents 
102.9 
87.1 
94.3 
Cents 
37.5 
32.0 
38.0 
Per cent 
36.4 
36.7 
40.2 
Cents 
2.1 
2.5 
3.3 
Per cent 
2.0 
2.9 
3.5 
138.9 
81.4 
41.3 
36.4 
29.7 
44.6 
5.1 
6.6 
3.7 
8.1 
120.4 
47.7 
39.6 
4.8 
4.0 
91.8 
136.8 
118.1 
37.0 
52.7 
43.0 
40.3 
38.5 
36.4 
5.3 
8.6 
3.4 
5.8 
6.3 
2.9 
343.0 
278.5 
321.9 
80.1 
91.8 
82.0 
23.4 
32.9 
25.5 
5.1 
10.2 
6.5 
1.5 
3.7 
2.0 
383.2 
316.8 
125.2 
44.5 
32.7 
14.0 
24.4 
5.5 
6.4 
1.7 
339.1 
89.8 
26.5 
9.0 
2.7 
302.8 
372.4 
90.0 
93.2 
29.7 
25.0 
20.2 
10.1 
6.7 
2.7 
Four 
times 
relative 
probable 
error l 
14.8 
32.4 
16.0 
23.2 
25.2 
11.6 
6.0 
14.8 
8.0 
25.1 
10.8 
26.8 
10.8 
* The probabilities are ninety-nine out of one hundred that the average of a much larger sample collected 
in the same way and at the same time would not vary from this average by more than four times the prob- 
able error. 
2 The Dec. 1 prices were reported by crop reporters and not by the regular price reporters, who 
report on the 15th of each month. 
With a range in price per bushel of from 30 to 250 cents, as was 
the case with the West Virginia, October, 1925, prices, a coefficient of 
variability of 40 per cent is not surprising. Cull, unsprayed, cider, 
and evaporator apples always sell for much lower prices than well- 
sprayed, high-grade apples of some of the choicer varieties. 
An effort has been made to obtain apple prices within the commer- 
cially important counties, but even for these counties the reported 
prices per bushel have showed fully as much variability as elsewhere 
in the State. The prices per barrel in those counties, however, 
showed a variability of only 14 per cent, as compared with a varia- 
bility of about 33 per cent for the entire State of West Virginia. In 
commercial sections a barrel of apples represents a more or less 
standardized product, whereas a bushel of apples sold includes vary- 
ing proportions of culls. 
Apple prices illustrate the difficulties involved in attempting to 
arrive at a single price series for a given product which will answer 
the various purposes for which a price series is ordinarily used. 
Even in a single locality there are on the one hand individual farm- 
ers who take excellent care of their orchards, who handle, grade, and 
pack their fruit with great care and dispose of it by means of auto 
truck in some city market at a fancy price. At the other extreme 
are farmers who use their orchards for hog pasture, spray only once 
or twice, if at all, and sell the fruit on the tree to the local buyer. 
The practice of most growers lies between these two extremes. " In 
addition to variations in price caused by such extremes in farm 
