The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1900-04-06
THE CENSUS.
Difficulties Met With in Securing
Farm Statistics.

To build up graat Office like the Cen
sus Office in fifteen months from abso-
lutely nothing to an efficient machine,
employing about three thousand men in
Washington and about fifty thousand
elsewhere in the country, is difficult
task, and entire success is out of the
question. The Office naturally compares
itself with the stage of preparation at
tanned 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 a way
as mt st to benefit the Census.
In the Agricultural Division the need
of time for preliminary work is perhaps
as great as anywhere in the Census Of
flee Farmers as class, do not keep
their accounts as we'll as manufacturers,
and the returns from farmers may occa-
sionally include serious errors which a
trained eye will at once detect. Hence
the farmschedules must be examined
and such errors corrected before the ia
bles can be made up from them with
safety. If farmer reports that his
land sown to wheat was ten acres and the
yield four thousand bushels, it is clear
that average yield of four hundred bush
els to the acre is incredible, and must be
elected or corrected in accordance with
the probabilities. Sometimes the truth
can be made out by an expert from COM
parison with entries 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 Agri-
cultural 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 required, and they must have hard
and fast rules to guide them. For
example, they might be told: When the
wheat reports show product OF over
forty bushels to the acre, they are suspi-
cious and must be laid aside for an ex
pert to pass upon. But any such rules
must vary with the section of the coun
try. A yield of twenty bushels in one
section might be more questionable thar
yield of forty bushels in another
Hence the division must fix in ad
vance what is the range of reports
in each part of the country and fol
each crop that may be accepted as pro
bable 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 yeritication, is
the object OF an extensive correspondence
how being carried on by the Agriculture
Division under the direction OF MIR. Il
G., Powers, Chief Statistician in charg,
of that division. Three simple SEIZED
ules have been prepared and printed OF
different coloreJ paper in order that thel
NAV be readily distinguished one from
another. One of them covers ordinar!
garden vegetables, second covers fruits
and the third the great staple field crops
Each asks about the units OF measure
employed and the net price realized, an'
the two more important schedules, thos
for staple field products and Tor vege
tables, ask for the highest and loves
Weld OF each crop per acre. The SEIZED
ules are being mailed to prominen
farmers all over the country and IN man.
Instances returns have already been ne
ceived. When the returns have bee
received ana tabulated, a scheme will b
made from them Of what is TO be accept
ed as correct in each case and what ~ .
be probed further. The only atm Of tn
Office is TO get what was really the IN
tentiOn Of the farmer in answering tn
questions. II the presumption Is strong
ly against his meaning what the SEIZED
ule says, the Office will try % learn b.