UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
DEPARTMENT BULLETIN No. 1480 
Washington, D. C. 
March, 1927 
RELIABILITY AND ADEQUACY OF FARM-PRICE DATA 
By Charles F. Sarle, Economic Analyst, Division of Crop and Livestock 
Estimates, Bureau of Agricultural Economics 
CONTENTS 
Page 
Purpose 1 
Description of farm prices 2 
Prices of farm products 2 
Surplus-area and deficit-area 
prices 2 
Farm-price quotations 4 
Geography of farm prices 4 
Farm price and the value of the 
container 5 
Unit of measure 5 
Farm prices in commercial-pro- 
ducing areas 5 
History and methods of collecting 
farm prices 5 
Averaging and weighting farm prices. 9 
State prices 9 
United States monthly and an- 
nual prices 11 
Unweighted versus weighted 
averages 17 
Analysis of the farm-price sample 20 
Geographical representativeness 
of the sample 20 
Variability and size of the 
sample . 24 
Analysis of prices of farm crops- 26 
Analysis of prices of livestock 
and livestock products 37 
Summary 43 
Page 
A comparison of State farm prices, 43 
Wheat 44 
Cotton 45 
Potatoes 45 
A comparison of farm prices with 
market prices 47 
Iowa hog prices 48 
Kansas and North Dakota wheat 
prices . 50 
Texas cotton prices 51 
Utilization of farm-price data 54 
Computation of value of crop 
production 54 
Inventory valuation of livestock 
January 1 60 
Computation of farm income 61 
Index-number making for farm 
prices 61 
Comparisons with other eco- 
nomic data 62 
Price changes as causes and 
effects 63 
Summary 64 
Literature cited 65 
PURPOSE 
An adequate knowledge of relative changes in farm-price data, 
especially as they compare with the trends of other prices, wages, 
land values, etc., is fundamental as a basis for an intelligent con- 
structive program for agriculture, whether of Federal or State 
agencies or of organizations of farmers. 
Prices and price changes are both causes and effects in the field 
of economic phenomena. In the long run the prices of farm products 
tend to control the supply. Changes in farm organization and types 
of farming can frequently be traced to absolute and relative changes 
in farm prices. For many problems of this kind it is desirable to 
have a price series which represents price changes in the local farm 
26813°— 27 1 1 
