Agricultural statistics of the USA 1968

Washington: United States Department Of Agriculture. National Agricultural Statistics Service. United States Government printing office, 1968. — 653 p.

Agricultural Statistics is published each year to meet the diverse needs for a reliable reference book on agricultural production, supplies, consumption, facilities, costs, and returns. Its tables of annual data cover a wide variety of facts in forms suited to most common use.

Inquiries concerning more current or more detailed data, past and prospective revisions, or the statistical methodology used should be addressed directly to the agency credited with preparing the table. Most of the data were prepared or compiled in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A few tables were prepared in other Government agencies.

The historical series in this volume have been generally limited to data beginning with 1954 or 1955 or the most recent 10 years. However, many of the series carry a reference in the source note to the table in Agricultural Statistics, 1967, where comparable data for earlier years can be found. In the 1967 issue, historical tables showing totals for the United States begin with 1866 for the principal crops and with 1867 for January 1 livestock numbers, and most other basic tables showing national totals begin with 1929, 1934, 1939, or 1944 (livestock and poultry tables 1 year later) depending in part on the relative need for a long series.

These two publications should provide data for enough years to meet the needs of most users.

Agricultural data for Alaska and Hawaii are included in the appropriate tables, where available. Certain statistics for these two States are found in chapter XIV.

U.S. foreign agricultural trade statistics include Government as well as non-Government shipments of merchandise from the United States and Territories to foreign countries. They do not include U.S. shipments to the U.S. Armed Forces abroad for their own use or shipments between the States and U.S. Territories. The world summaries of production and
trade of major farm products are prepared by the U.S. Department of Agriculture from reports of the U.S. Department of Commerce, official statistics of foreign governments, other foreign source materials, reports of U.S. Agricultural Attaches and Foreign Service Officers, and the result of office research.

Three types of data are included in this volume. Statistics presented in many of the tables represent actual counts of the items covered. Most of the statistics relating to foreign trade and to Government programs, such as numbers and amounts of loans made to farmers, and amounts of loans made by the Commodity Credit Corporation, etc., are data of this type.
A large number of other tables, however, contain data that are estimates made by the Department of Agriculture, which in many cases are supplemented by a third type of data obtained in census enumerations.

The estimates for crops, livestock, and poultry made by the U.S. Department of Agriculture are prepared mainly to give timely current State and national totals and averages. They are based on data obtained by sample surveys of farmers and of people who do business with farmers.

The survey data are supplemented by information from the Censuses of Agriculture taken every 5 years and check data from various sources.

Being estimates, they are subject to revisions as more data become available from commercial or Government sources. Unless otherwise indicated, the totals for the United States shown in the various tables on acreage, production, numbers, price, value, supplies, and disposition are based onofficial Department estimates. They exclude States for which no official estimates are compiled.

For census years, many tables carry both census totals and this Department's estimates. Generally, where there are appreciable differences between the census totals and this Department's final estimates, the processes of checking and revising estimates have indicated that some sources provide more nearly complete information about some items than the census has been able to obtain. For example, this Department's estimates of tobacco production can be considered more precise than census totals, because the estimates are revised in line with actual production as shown independently by Internal Revenue records and State records of tobacco sales. Sugarbeet and sugarcane production and acreage estimates are adjusted to quantities actually reported by sugar factories. Check information on peanuts and rice is available from processors for areas sometimes including several States. In a number of other instances allowances have been made for known incompleteness of coverage by the census.

For livestock and poultry, the Department's estimates of inventory numbers relate to January 1. Most recent censuses have not enumerated numbers on that date. The 1945 Census was taken as of January 1, but with the trying wartime conditions, was delayed over a considerable length of time in a number of States with the result that reported inventory numbers did not always represent the actual January 1 inventory. The 1950 Census was taken as of April 1, the 1954 and 1959 Censuses were taken in October and November, and the 1964 Census was taken in November and December. These situations have made it necessary to adjust census totals to a January 1 equivalent basis, taking into account changes that occurred between the January 1 date and the actual date of enumeration.