RELIABILITY AND ADEQUACY OF FARM-PRICE DATA 5 
FARM PRICE AND TRE VALUE OF TEE CONTAINER 
The farm price is designed to express the general average of all 
sales made at a specified time in the locality in which the price re- 
porter lives. If it is the local practice of the community for the 
farmer to sell potatoes in sacks or apples in boxes the farm price 
probably includes the cost of the container. A wide range of possi- 
bilities is included under the method of sale in different parts of the 
country. If marked differences exist between two States the farm 
prices of the farm product in question are not fully comparable. If 
local practices change over a period of several years, the farm prices 
lose some of their comparability. It is the local practice which de- 
termines what the farm price shall be in a particular section. The 
price of a single variety or grade would be misleading in years of 
light production or of heavy production of the particular variety. 
UNIT OF MEASURE 
The farm-price schedule of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics 
asks for the price of potatoes and sweet potatoes on both the bushel 
and 100-pound basis. The price of baled hay is asked separately so 
that the price of loose hay will not include prices of baled hay by 
mistake. The quotations are more likely to apply to a given unit of 
measure if a place is provided for the reporter to enter the price in 
the unit with which he is most familiar. It is a simple matter to 
convert the price of potatoes from the 100-pound basis to the bushel 
basis when the schedule is received. To obtain peanut prices accu- 
rately it is necessary to ask for the price in three different units — 
pound, bushel, and ton — depending on the variety of peanut sold and 
the part of the country from which the report comes. 
FARM PRICES IN COMMERCIAL-PRODUCING AREAS 
Because of the difficulties involved in having a State price based 
on both surplus-producing and deficit areas, and because of the wide 
differences in the prices of the different varieties of the same product, 
and the various units in which it is sold, the department is experi- 
menting with special schedules for a few crops in the generally 
recognized commercial areas of several States. 
Since about 1919 the department has been publishing the estimated 
values of commercial vegetable crops by States. These values are 
based on reports received every two weeks during the harvest season 
as to prices paid to growers, supplemented at the end of the harvest 
season by an inquiry as to the average price received during the 
season by growers. These values or season average prices do not 
include the prices of products sold from farm storage after harvest 
is completed. 
For a number of farm products, such as turkeys, maple sugar, and 
peaches, farm prices are obtained only in the months in which the 
bulk of sales occur. 
HISTORY AND METHODS OF COLLECTING FARM PRICES 
Systematic collection of farm prices by the department began in 
1867, when farm prices of crops and farm values of livestock as of 
January 1 were obtained from correspondents. In 1872 the date 
