The commissioner of agriculture is hereby authorized to conduct cooperative work with the United States Department of Agriculture in gathering and disseminating information concerning agriculture, and it shall be the duty of the commissioner of agriculture and the Tax Commissioner to prepare and supply to the several assessors of the state printed forms, books, blanks, papers and reports, which are hereby required to be printed by the state printer out of the printing fund of the state, to be used in the gathering of such agricultural and other statistics as the commissioner of agriculture may require.