Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1912-06-08


of information, and hence the extraor-
binary precautions taken to prevent
anything Of the kind.
Advance knowledge of government
figures for the cotton crop, for in
stance, even though It might antici-
pate their official publication by only
"a hours, would be worth. many mil
lions OF dollars, perhaps, to a few
speculative and INSCRIPTIONS per-
sons. They could buy or sell on an
enormous scale with a certainty OF
winning, inasmuch as the great puz-
zle, whether the market was to go up
or down, would be solved for them
ahead of time.
No wonder, then, that the members
OF the crop reporting board. which
holds its sessions in the old brick
building of the Department of Agri-
culture, are selected as much for
trustworthiness as for knowledge OF
their business.
Suppose 1t is question of cotton
report. Notice has been published in
advance that this report will be given
out at certain minute of a certain
hour on a certain day. On that day,
awaiting the hour and minute, two
telegraph companies have men and
instruments IN the department build
ing. The board is in session with all
doors locked, all telephones In its Of
nee rooms are disconnected, and
there is no communication with the
outside. Nobody comes in or goes out
except by special written permission
Of the Secretary OF Agriculture.
1t all seems tremendously secret
and mysterious. But at the appointed
minute the doors are thrown open,
and copies of the report, freshly multi
graphed inside, are given out to all
Corners. Nobody has precedence of
anybody else. The telegraph oper-
ators, whose wires have been held
open for the news. flash 1t all over the
country.
Now, 1t 10 obvious that the produc- /
ton of this and other crop reports re-
quires elaborate machinery, so to
speak, and the services Of many thou
sands Of persons 1t is altogether
big affair; yet there are few persons
who have any definite notion Of the
method by which the facts and figures
demanded for the purpose are collect
ed and put together.
To start with, 1t should be said that
there are three sources of original in
formation on such subjects.
Representing the first Of these
sources are the socalled township
correspondents or more of them
in each township in the United States.
Their number in any given township
depends upon the size and agricultural
Importance Of the latter Such CORE
spondents number about $4,000. They
are unpaid volunteers-public-sp
farmers and other good citizens who
are willing to help the government
in this important work.
County correspondents are the sec
ond source of information. The, bu-
reau has one correspondent in every
agricultural county in the United
States-about $500 in all-and this
man has three or more neighbors or
friends who report to him regularly
on the same subjects of crop condi-
tions, yield and acreage.
Third source: In each state there
is a so-called state statistical agent"
who gets salary from the bureau
from $500 a year up, the pay being
small in consideration of the fact that
the work occupies only part of his
time. Reporting regularly to him on
the subjects already mentioned are
numbers Of volunteer aids" In big
agricultural state such as Kansas or
Texas, or Michigan, there might be
from 500 to 1000 such aids; in a
small state Of less agricultural i'm
portance there would be proportion
-tely fewer.