Crop Meter
date: label: date made
content: 1925
notes: label: Description
content: In 1923, D. A. McCandliss, State Agricultural Statistician for Mississippi, developed the crop meter as a more reliable way to estimate cotton acreage in Mississippi. The new technology soon spread to other states.
label: Description
content: This crop meter has two rows of keys, one white and one red – they are used to record acreage on either side of the road. The red and white buttons were used for recording frontages of additional crops such as corn, tobacco, wheat, and soybeans. The serial number of this crop meter is Department of Agriculture 82523BAE.
label: Description
content: Crop meters were a vast improvement over earlier methods of crop estimation, such as counting fields or having farmers mail in estimates. The crop meter sat on a car dashboard and was connected to the speedometer shaft. As the car drove along the edge of a field, the meter measured the “frontage” of the field. Statisticians used these measurements to estimate total acreage. This meter is a “double bank” model. The crop meter was later replaced by aerial observation.
label: Description
content: Agricultural statistics provide valuable economic information. They are important not only to farmers but also to those in business and government. In 1912, the USDA began making crop forecasts before harvest, rather than only reporting production after the harvest. Crop forecasts were of particular interest to federal officials during the New Deal. Congress sought to regulate supply and demand for agricultural products. The Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 established a subsidy program that paid farmers to take fields out of production. It included seven products designated as “basic crops”: corn, wheat, cotton, rice, peanuts, tobacco, and milk. Subsidies came from a tax on companies that processed farm products, but in 1936, the Supreme Court ruled the tax unconstitutional. As a result, the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 established a quota system and overproduction penalties.
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Agriculture
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content: American Enterprise
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content: Agriculture
label: Exhibition
content: American Enterprise
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Statistical Reporting Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, through Harry C. Trelogan
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: AG.69A9.12
label: catalog number
content: 69A12
label: accession number
content: 283306
objectType: label: Object Name
content: crop meter
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)