Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1889-06-08

Agriculture in the Census.
To one who i. interested in the agriculture
Of the country and il. marvellous develop
ment during the past forty years, it is curl
ous to turn back over the pages Of the Other
wise dry census reports-our only record Of
its progress in actual hgures-aod trace its
condition and importance page BY page
The earliest report to which We have ac-
cess at iai. writing is that u the seventh /
censu. fog the year 1850. The reports or
agriculture occupy forty-nin- pages, four
ten OF shich are devoted to the statistics
Of stock and farm productions. of the four
qaarto volumes giving the results Of the
eighth census. 1850, one Of 1853 pages "a.
devoted to agriculture; liz of the number
being given % a summary Of general infor
nation. and 292 70 statistical tables At the
close o. thl. volume Is most curious sec
ton and one. shich. 10 the present genera
ton Of readers seems strange. 1t - sec
ton of % pages devoted to statistics OF
slave. and shareholders, containing an
enumeration b. cou1ues, in ali the slave
holding States Of the numbers Of tho-e per
cons o~ninz from one 70 one thousand |
slaves. each, Of shich there we're in the lat
Ter class but ~ 0 in the entire country. iriser-
piain,d that the reason Of this table APPEAR
ug in the agricultural volume was because
mos; Of the slaves were engaged in agrical- |
tural work aud therefore il was more proper |
here than in any other place. 1t "a. dark
picture hich, thank God, Sill never appear
again upon the pages Of census report.
In the ninih census, l.70. agriculture oc-
cupied a .scuon 10 one Of the three volumes
of the 'haal report" that devoted to
Wealth ard Industry, xix pages being de-
voted to general remarks, and 237 to statisli- |
cal tables on hive stock and crop products. |
| 1t Vas in tins report that maps wee for the |
/ fret time used 10 represent certain phases
and conditions of agriculture. This was
1 done by comparative shadings in different
colors Thus one map of the Quilted States
/ represented the corr crop of the country, as
a whole, while light or dark shading in the
/ several touuties and states indicated the
/ yield per acre. Other maps represented in
a similar manner other leading crops, num-
bers Of farm stock, relative density of wool |
ed sec ions, etc. The maps were not in all
cases correct, bat they Appropriated correct
ness and told plain story to the eye, taking
in the whole country upon two pages at once,
while it would have consumed ten fold the
time, and caused no end of annoyance to
have turned over page after page in reaching
the same results.
/ But it is 18th the tenth census of 1880 that
the acme OF perfection in the graphic presen-
taton Of the facts of our vast agriculture
seems TO have been reached. Indeed We do
not see how much improyemy Mt can be made
in this direction and certainly no industry
of our country has received higher recog
milton or better treatment at the hands of ex
| pert-, than has agriculture. The volume
| given to this subj Jet embraces total of 1872
large quarto pages, with six plates and seven
teen maps There are in addition to the
elaborate pages of statistics, monographs on
! The Cereals by Prof W II, Brewer of Yale
| College; on Flour Milling in all its improved
/ processes on Tobacco by Hon. j. X. Dodge
and on Meat Production by Clarence W
Gordon. This important work forms one of
the twenty-five large volumes which we're
found necessary to embrace the final results
of the tenth census-the completed work be-
ing one of the largest and most volumnious
I