numbered year. The law providing for this annual enumeration by the tax assessors is outlined in our introduction to the statistics for the year 1907, in the following pages. By this method the State is in possession, from year to year, of an actual census enumeration. In order to supplement this information for the current year in which the enumeration is being made, the State Board of Agriculture has devised a system of crop reporting. A corps of crop correspondents is maintained by the Department, numbering, at the present time, about 800, representing as many municipal townships in the various counties in the State. To these correspondents inquiries are submitted by the Department, asking for a reply to the questions incorporated therein, which questions relate to timely information as to the growing condition of crops, the acreage sown or planted that year as compared with the year previous, and such other relevant information as to weather conditions and their effect upon the crop as are thought to be of general information. These inquiries, when returned to the State Department, are computed upon the assessors' returns for the year previous. This constitutes our method of making estimates in the current year as to what the acreage and production of the various crops will be. These estimates are not offhand guesses; they are the result of careful and accurate compilations from month to month with the enumeration of the previous year as a basis. During the year just passed eight crop reports have been issued in the form of press bulletins, as follows: Press bulletin No. 1. April 1, 1908. Thus the State Board of Agriculture is carrying on, but more in detail, the same extensive work for the State as the Federal Bureau of Census, with the co-operation of the United States Department of Agriculture, is doing for the United States. The Federal Bureau of Census makes a house to house canvass once each ten years, hence the United States Department of Agriculture. cannot revise its figures but once each ten years, and is required to carry forward their estimates for that term of years, by a system of crop reporting. As stated above, it is not the province of the State Board of Agriculture to duplicate the work of the Federal Department, but rather to work in complete harmony with that Bureau, and lend every assistance possible to the end that nothing but accurate and reliable statistics are disseminated for the information of the public. The reports of the State Board of Agriculture go into detail as to counties and permit the closest comparison of the resources of one county as compared with another. Thus, in presenting this, the first enumeration of the inhabitants and agricultural resources of the State, it is the desire of the State Board of Agriculture to present only accurate and reliable statistics, the value of which will at once become apparent to both producing and consuming classes. COST OF PRODUCING COTTON IN OKLAHOMA IN 1907. By F. W. GIST, Special Agent, Bureau of Statistics. Schedules were sent to about 90 farmers, distributed over the cottonproducing portions of the State, asking for information covering the cost of producing and marketing the cotton crop of 1907, and also asking for the amount of seed cotton produced, the amount of lint secured therefrom, and the total receipts for lint and seed. These schedules were in the following form: Farmers to whom these were sent were requested to report each item from their best recollection, and were instructed to treat their own labor and that of their teams as if they had hired the same at the prevailing wages; to report the cost of picking at the rate per 100 prevailing in their section, and to report the price received for lint and seed, or the present price if they had not sold. The item of rent of land was not asked for, because of the very large proportion of farmers operating their own farms in the western part of the State. This item is considered in its various phases hereafter. Forty-two replies were received from 29 counties, all of which were filled out in a highly intelligent manner, so that the compilation and results obtained therefrom are very satisfactory, and are considered as fairly expressing the average cost of production of last season's crop and the returns therefor. The following table is a compilation showing the number of acres reported upon, the cost of preparng the land per acre, the cost of planting per acre, the cost of cultivation per acre, the cost of picking per acre, and the cost of ginning, hauling to market and selling per acre; the total cost per acre; the yield per acre and the cost per pound of seed cotton produced; the total receipts per acre and the receipts per pound of seed cotton sold; the profit per acre and the profit per pound of seed cotton, and the averages for the State: In this table the following counties show averages of the number of farms reporting therefrom: Canadian, 4; Oklahoma, Pottawatomie, and Caddo, 3 each; Okfuskee, Payne, Tillman, and Pawnee, 2 each. The remaining counties show figures from one farm only. It will be seen that the acreage reported upon runs from 4 to 950. COST OF PREPARATION. The cost of preparation per acre averages $1.40, ranging from 45 cents in Grady county to $3 in Coal county. In Grady county the cost consisted of 6 days' labor of hand, at $1 per day, and 6 days with team, at $2 per day. This was on 40 acres. In Coal county it consisted of 10 days with hand, at $1 per day, and 10 days with team, at $2, on 10 acres. The average cost of preparation for the State consisted of the labor of hand and team, at $1.09 for hand and $2.12 for team per day. This for the 2,027 acres reported shows an average of 0.40 day with hand and team per acre, or about two and one-half acres per team per day. Not a single farm reported the use of fertilizer. COST OF PLANTING. The cost of planting shows an average for the State of 65 cents per acre, ranging from 35 cents in Washita county to $1.25 in Canadian. In Canadian county, from which four reports were received, the cost ranges from 45 cents to $2.90 per acre. This latter cost was on a farm of 30 acres and consisted of 35 bushels of seed, at 48.5 cents per bushel; 20 days' labor of hand and team, at $1.50 for hand and $2.00 for team. The minimum cost of planting, in Washita county, was on a farm of 50 acres, and consisted of 25 bushels of seed at 25 cents per bushel; 5 days' labor of hand and team, at $1 per day for hand and $1.50 for team. The average cost for the State consisted of 0.88 bushel of seed per acre, at 23 cents per bushel; 0.14 day's labor with hand and team, at an average of $1.14 per day for hand and $1.76 for team, or a fraction over 7 acres planted per team per day. COST OF CULTIVATION. The average cost of cultivation per acre for the State is $3.38, ranging from $1.55 in Marshall county to $8.50 in Coal. The minimum cost was on a farm of 30 acres, and consisted of 10 days' plowing with hand and team, at $1 per day for hand and $1.50 for team; 22 days' chopping, at $1 per day, and 10 days' hoeing, at $1 per day. The maximum cost was on a farm of 10 acres, and consisted of 20 days' plowing with hand and team, at $1 per day for hand and $2 per day for team; 10 days' chopping and 10 days' hoeing, at $1.25 per day each. The average cost for the State consisted of an average of 0.62 day's plowing per acre with hand and team, at $1.13 per day for hand and $2.06 for team; 0.48 day per acre for chopping, at $1.17 per day; hoeing on 26 farms out of the 42, and replanting on 10 farms, which is treated in detail hereafter. COST OF PICKING. The cost of picking, depending as it does upon both the amount paid per 100 pounds and the yield per acre, shows a very wide range of difference. The average per acre for the State is $5.23, ranging from $1.80 in Pushmataha county to $9 in Pittsburg. In the former the average yield was 180 pounds and the rate paid was $1 per hundred; in the latter the yield was 1,200 pounds and the rate was 75 cents. The question of wages paid for picking is considered in detail in a separate table. COST OF GINNING, ETC. The cost of ginning, hauling to market, and selling is included in one item, and shows an average of $1.41 per acre for the State, ranging from 50 cents in Grady and Payne counties to $3.70 in Greer. In Grady and Payne the product was sold in the seed and there was, consequently, no cost for ginning. In Grady 40 acres were reported upon, while in Payne two farms of 12 acres each reported 50 cents as the cost of hauling to market and selling. In Greer a farm of 50 acres reported 40,000 pounds of seed cotton produced, with a cost of $185 for ginning, etc. It is evident that in this case the seed was given for ginning, which is quite a general practise in some sections. This instance shows it to be a very expensive practise. The next highest cost for this item was in Le Flore county, where there was a yield of 1,333 pounds per acre on an 18-acre farm, reporting a cost of $60 for this item. The average cost of ginning is reported to me from another source at $3.20 per bale. MISCELLANEOUS COST. This cost was intended to cover such items as wear of tools, etc., but as only 10 reports included anything under this head, no separate column was compiled, the amount in each instance being simply included in the total cost per acre. The largest amount reported for miscellaneous cost was in Greer county from a 50-acre farm, where it amounted to $1.50 per acre, and the smallest was in Cherokee county, where on a 25-acre farm it amounted to 10 cents per The 10 farms reporting this item embraced 441 acres, and showed an average miscellaneous cost of 46 cents per acre. acre. TOTAL COST PER ACRE. The total cost per acre averages $12.23 for the counties reporting. The lowest was $8.21 in Carter county on a farm of 80 acres, and the following itemized statement of cost on that farm will be instructive:. Replanting Picking 21,000 pounds of seed cotton, at 80 cents per On this farm the yield was only 262 pounds of seed cotton per acre, the cost per pound of seed cotton being 3.12 cents, the profit per acre was $1.94, and the profit per pound of seed was 0.75 cent. Here only one-half day per acre was devoted to preparation, three-twentieths of a day to planting, three-fourths of a day to cultivation with plow, three-eighths of a day to chopping, and one |