The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1900-04-05
THE CENSUS WORK.

from absolutely nothing to an eff
tclent machine, employing about
three thousand men in Washing
ton and about fifty thousand else
where in the country, is difficult
task, and entire success is out of
the question. The office natural
ly compares itself with the stage
of preparation attained at the
same period ten years ago and
tried by this test, it has gained
several months on it's predecessor.
One of the problems before it is
how to put in the time thus secur-
ed in such way as most to bene-
fit the census.
In the Agricultural Division the
need of time for preliminary work
is perhaps as great as anywhere in
the census office. Farmers, as a
class, do not keep their accounts
as we'll as manufacturers, and the
returns from the farmers may oc-
casionally include serious errors
which trained eye will at once
detect. Hence the farm sched-
ules must be examined and such
errors corrected before the tables
can be made up from them with
safety. If a farmer reports that
his land sown to wheat was ten
acres and the yield four thousand
bushels, it is clear that an average
yield of four hundred bushels to
the acre is incredible, and must be
rejected or corrected in accordance
with the probabilities. Some
times the truth can be made out
by an expert from comparisons
with entries i'll other parts of the
schedules; sometimes correspon-
dence must be opened to settle
the doubt. All this ranks under
the general head of verifying the
schedules, and the Agricultural
Division plans to give all the
time possible to the work of veri-
flying each Of the millions of farm
schedules. To accomplish this in
the time allowed, the work of sew
eral hundred clerks will be re-
quired, and they must have hard
and fast rules to guide them. For
example, they might be told:
When the wheat reports show a
product of over forty bushels to
the acre, they are suspicious and
must be laid aside for an expert
to pass upon. But any such rules
must vary with the section of the
country. A yield of twenty bush
els in one section might be more
questionable than a yield of forty
III another. Hence the division
must fix in advance what is the
range Of reports in each part of
the country and for each crop
that may be accepted as liable
on their face and not IL, iring
special examination. To the
limits of probability for t.. pur-
pose for each county in the Unit
ed States, that is, the maximum
and minimum price which may be
accepted without verification, is
the object of an extensive cores
pondence now being carried on by
the Agricultural Division under
the direction of Mr.. l.. G.. Powers,
Chief Statician in charge of that
division. Three simple schedules
have been prepared and printed
on different colored paper in order
that they may be readily distin-
guished one from another. One
of them covers ordinary garden
vegetables, u second covers fruits,
and the third the great staple field
crops. Each asks about the units
of mearure employed and the net
price re2lized, and the two more
schedules, those for
staple field products and for vege-
tables, ask for the highest and
lowest yield of each crop per acre.
These schedules are being mailed
to prominent farmers all over the
country and in many instances re-
turns have already been received.
When the returns have been re-
ceived and tabulated, scheme
will be made from them of what
is to be accepted as correct in each
case and what is to be probed far
Their. The only aim Of the office
is to get what was really the in
tention Of the farmer in answer
ing the questions. If the pre-
sumption is strongly against his
meaning what the schedule says,
the office will try to learn by cor
from the Supervisor,
or the Enumerator, or the farmer
himself what the real facts were.
If the farming public will con-
tinue to cooperate with the hearth
ness already displayed, this effort
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