RELIABILITY AND ADEQUACY OF FARM-PRICE DATA 9 
AVERAGING AND WEIGHTING FARM PRICES 
The problem of averaging farm prices is here divided for con- 
venience into the averaging of price quotations or reports within the 
State to obtain a State average price, and the averaging of State 
prices in determining the United States average price. Another 
division which might be made is that of averaging price reports from 
different sections or areas as of a particular date, and averaging 
monthly prices to obtain an annual price either for the State or the 
United States. Averages may be any one of the three common types 
of averages: (1) The straight, simple, or unweighted average, which 
realty gives the same weight to each price in the series; (2) the 
weighted average in which the same or " constant " weights are used 
time after time, and (3) the weighted average in which different or 
" current " weights are used each time. 
MONTHLY PRICE AND JANUARY I VALUE OF MILK COWS 
MINNESOTA AND NEW YORK, I9I0-I926 
1910 'II '12 '13 
22 '23 '24 '25 '26 '27 
Fig. 2. — Both the monthly prices and the January 1 values measure the general relationship 
between milk-cow values in the two States for the 17-year period from January, 1910, 
to January, 1926 
STATE PRICES 
That the farm price may fairly well represent the average price 
received by producers, it is necessary that the samples be well dis- 
tributed so as to represent both surplus-producing and deficit areas. 
When the schedules received are well distributed there is a general 
tendency for more reports to be received on the price of a certain 
product in those sections of the State in which the most sales occur ; 
that is, in the surplus-producing sections. For weighting purposes, 
each State is divided into about 9 crop-reporting districts, as shown 
in Figure 3 (some small States have less than 9 and a few States 
have 10 crop-reporting districts). In determining the State farm 
price of an important crop the price reports from each district are 
averaged and these district averages are weighted by the number of 
26813°— 27 2 
