Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1900-04-06
THE COMING JUNE CENSUS.
Its Aims and How the Work May be
Facilitated and IL form alton
Made More Valuable.

] TO build mp great office like the
Census Office in fifteen months from
absolutely nothing to an efficient
machine, employing about three
thousand men in Washington and
about fifty thousand elsewhere in
the country, is a difficult task, and
entire success is out of the question.
The Office naturally compares itself
with the stage of preparation attain
ed at the same period ten years ago
and tried by this test, it has gained
several months on it's predecessors.
One of the problems beforei is how
to put in the time thus secured in
such way as most benefit to 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
well MS manufactures, and the re-
turns from farmers may occasionally
include serious errors which train
ed eye will at once detect. Hence
The farm schedules must be examin-
ed and such errors corrected before
the tables can be made up from
hem with safety If a farmer re-
ports that his land sown to wheat
was ten acres and the yield four
thousand bushels, it is clear that an
everage yield of four hundred bush
les to the acre is incredible, and must
be rejected or corrected in accord.
ance with the probabilities. Some
times the truth can be made out by
an expert from comparison with en-
tries in other parts of the schedules
sometimes correspondence must be
opened to settle the doubt All this
ranks under the general head of
verifying the schedules, and the Ag-
ricultural Division plans to give all
the time possible to the work of YER
flying each of the millions of farm
schedules TO accomplish this in
the time allowed, the work of sever
al hundred clerks will he required,
and they must have hard and fast
rules to guide them. For example.
they might be told When the
whead 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 sec
ton of the country. A yield OF
twenty bushels in one section might
be more questionable than a yield
Of forty bushels in another. Hence
the division must fix in advance
what is the range of reports il eacl
part of the country and for eacl
crop that may be accepted as prob
able on their face and not requir
ing special examination. To get the
limits of probability for this purpose
for each county in the United
States, that is, the maximum ant
minimum yield and the maximum
and minimum price which may b'
accepted without verification, is tn,
hject of an extensive correspond
euce now being carried on by thi
Agricultural Division under the di
rection of Mr. L. G.. Powers, Chic
StatiStician in charge of that divi
sion. Three simple schedules hav
been prepared and printed on differ
. ent colored paper in order that the.
may be readily distinguished on
l from another. One of them cover
ordinary garden vegetables, a sec
ond covers fruits, and the third til
great staple field crops. Each ask
about the units of measure employ
u ed and the net price realized, an
! the two more important schedules
those for staple field products an
u for vegetables, ask for the highes
and lowest yield of each crop pc
, acre. These schedules are bein
v mailed to prominent farmers all oN
e or the country and in many instaI
II ces returns have already been n
= ceived. When the returns hay
# been received and tabulated,
n scheme will be made from them
:. what is to be accepted as correct
y each case and what is to be probe
- farther. The only aim of the Off
N is to get what was really the intel
is tion of the farmer in answering ii
le questions If the presumption is st
!" !. ongly against his meaning what I'll
re schedule says, the office will try
learn by correspondence from &
Supervisor, or the Enumerator,
the farmer himself the real facts.
lej If the farming public will contil
AZ ne to cooperate with the heartine
~ already displayed, this effort will l
~ suit in more trustworthy census
IL farms than has ever been taken.
40 Formers, as a class. are less al
no TO cooperate than the represeDtativ
70 of ano other great industrO. Hen
the Census Office can do more (