The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-03-28
PROGRESS OF THE WORK
THE CENSUS OFFICE WILL SOON BE
AN EFFICIENT MACHINE.
The Work of the Agricultural Divi-
sion of Interest to Farmers
of Indiana.

The press bureau of the Census Office
has sent out the following bulletin, which
is of interest to Indiana farmers:
ITO build up great office like the Census
Office In fifteen months from absolutely
nothing to an efficient machine. employing
about 5000 men in Washington and about
$4,000 elsewhere in the country, is a difficult
task, and entire success is out of the queS-
ton. The office naturally 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 Its predecessor. One OF the problems
before it is how to put in the time thus
secured in such way as most TO benefit
the census
'In the agricultural division the nee6 of
time for preliminary work is perhaps as
great as anywhere in the Census Office.
Farmers. as class, do not keep their &C
counts as well as manufacturers. and the
returns from farmers may occasionally in
clude serious errors which trained eye
will at once detect. Hence the farm sched-
ules must be examined and such errors cor
rected 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 1900 bushels. ii is clear that
an average yield of 400 bushels to the acre
is Incredible and must be rejected or cor
rected N accordance with the proba bilities.
Sometimes the truth can be made out by
an expert from comparison with entries in
other parts of the schedules; sometimes
;he doubt. All this ranks under the gen.
eral head of verifying the schedules, and
the agricultural division plans TO give all
the time possible to the work of verifying
each OF the millions of farm schedules. To
accomplish this in the time allowed, the
work Of several 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
oil 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 In each part
OF the country and for each crop that may
be accepted as probable on their face and
not requiring special examination. To get
the limits of probability for this purpose
for each county in the United States, that
is, the maximum and minimum yield and
the maximum and minimum price which
may be accepted without verification, is the
object of an extensive correspondence now
being carried on by the agricultural di-
vision under the direction of Mr.. l.. CT
Powers, chief statistician in charge of that
division. Three simple schedules have been
prepared and printed en- different colored
paper in order that they may be readily dis
tinguished one from another. One of them
covers ordinary garden vegetables, sec
ond covers fruits, and the third the great
units of measure employed and the net
price realized, and the two more important
schedules, those for staple field products
and for vegetables, 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 returns have already been re-
ceived 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 further. The only aim of the office
is TO get what was really the intention of
the farmer in answering the questions. If
the presumption is strongly against his
meaning what the schedule says, the office
will try to learn by correspondence from
the supervisor or enumeration. or the farm
er himself what the real facts were.
IF the farming public will continue to CO.
operate with the heartiness already dis
played this effort will result in a more
trustworthy census of farms than has ever
been taken. Farmers, as class, are less
able to cooperate than the representatives
of any other great industry. Hence the
Census Office can do more for them than
IL can for centralized lines of business,
which can and do make their own investi-
cations. and 1t will do its best to present
full and accurate photograph Of this lead
ing occupation. The director OF the census
urges every one interested to aid the
work"