6 BULLETIN 1480, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE 
for reporting prices of crops was changed to December 1. After 
this change was made it became customary to consider the crop prices 
reported as of January 1, 1867-1872, as equivalent to the prices 
prevailing one month earlier (December 1 of the previous calendar 
year), and for many years past these prices have been published as of 
December 1, 1866-1871, making a full series of December 1 prices 
for crops. ~No change has been made in the date for reporting values 
of livestock. The prices of crops and the values of livestock for the 
period, 1866-1878, as now published have been reduced to a gold 
basis, using equivalents supplied by the United States Treasury 
Department. 
In January, 1908, the department began to obtain monthly prices 
paid to farmers for corn, wheat, oats, barley, rye, buckwheat, flaxseed, 
potatoes, cotton, and hay. The following February, butter, eggs, 
and chickens were added to the schedule. These prices were obtained 
as of the first of each month from crop reporters of the department. 
Beginning January, 1910, prices were collected as of the 15th of the 
month from a list of country dealers and merchants, for the following 
products: Hogs, beef cattle, veal, sheep,, and lambs, per 100 pounds 
live weight ; horses and milk cows per head ; wool per pound ; apples, 
pears, dry beans, sweet potatoes, onions, and clover seed, per bushel ; 
and peanuts, per pound. Timothy seed and cottonseed prices were 
first obtained in September, 1910. Maple sugar and maple sirup 
prices date from March, 1912; alfalfa seed prices from June, 1912; 
prices of turkeys, per pound, from October, 1912. The prices of a 
few other farm products have been added from time to time. 
Until 1925 there were three different lists of crop correspondents. 
The first corps of crop reporters built up by the department in the 
sixties was the "county correspondents." There was supposed to 
be one county correspondent in each county, who was to receive in- 
formation from other reporters in his county. This was a small list, 
but the addresses were well distributed over the country. It was 
not until about 1896 that the township list was started. The town- 
ship list, as its name implies, is supposed to have a reporter in every 
agricultural township. 
As statistical agents were appointed in the field, each agent built up 
another list of correspondents — known as the "field aid" list — to 
report direct to him in the States which he covered. In 1900 there 
were three such field agents in the United States. The number was 
gradually increased until about 1910, when agents were appointed in 
the larger and more important agricultural States, and became 
known as State agricultural statistical agents-or statisticians. 
A year or so ago the list of county reporters was merged with the 
township list. At present there are about 38,500 township reporters 
and about 40,000 field-aid reporters. All reporters and correspond- 
ents of the department are doing the work voluntarily and receive no 
compensation for their services other than current publications of 
the department which contain the crop and livestock forecasts and 
estimates made by the department. 
The 15th-of-the-month prices are reported by an additional list 
of about 13,500 voluntary correspondents, most of them country 
merchants, or dealers at country shipping points, and a few well- 
informed farmers. Prior to December, 1923, the prices of the major 
