The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1900-03-29

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Census Office In fifteen months from
absolutely nothing to an efficient ma
chine. 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 natur-
ally 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 20 ben
eft the Census.
In the Agricultural Division the need
oftime for preliminary work is. perhaps
as great as anywhere in the Census
Office. Farmers, rs class, do not
| keep their accounts as we'll as manu-
facturers, and the returns from farm
ers may occasionally include serious
errors which trained eye will at once
detect. Hence the farm schedules
must be examined and such errors cor
rected before the tables can be made
with safety. If farmer reports that
his land sown to wheat was ten acres
and the yield four thousand bushels,
IL is clear that an average yield of four
hundred bushels to the acre is incred-
ible, and must be rejected or corrected
in accordance with the probabilities.
Sometimes the truth can be made out
by an expert from comparison with
en- FRIES in other parts of the schedl les;
sometimes correspondence must be
opened to settle the doubt. Ali this
ranks under the general head of veri-
flying the schedules, and the Agr.cu'-
tural Division plans to give all the
time possible to the work OF verifying
each of the millions of farm schedules.
To accomplish this in thetime allowed,
the work of several hundred clerks will
be required, and they must have hard
and fast rules to guide them. For ex-
ample, they might be told: When the
wheat reports show product of over
forty bushels to the acre, they are sus-
picious 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 bushels
in one section might be more question:
able 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 cour try and for
each crop that may be accepted as
probable on their face and not requir-
ing special examination. To get the
limits of probability for this purpose
for each country in the United States,
that is, the maximum and minimum
weld and the 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 direc-
/ ion Of MIR. L. G. Powers, Chief Statis-
tican in charge of that division Three
simple schedules have been prepared
and printed on different eolored paper
in order that they may be readily dis
ting uished one from another. One OF
them covers ordinary garden vegeta-
bles, . second covers fruits. and the
third the great staple field crops.
Each asks about the units of measure
lempFCyed and she met 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 recei ed, When the
retarns have been received and tabu-
lated, a scheme will be made from them
OF what is to be accepted as correct in
each case and what is to be pvobed
farther. 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
bis meaning what the schedule says,
the office will try to learn by cores
pondence from the Supervisor, or the
Enumeratos, or the farmer himself
what the real facts were.
If the farming public will continue
to cooperate with the heartiness al
ready displayed, this effort will result
in more, trustworthy census Of farm
ers than has ever been taken. Farm
ers, as class, are less able to cooper
ate than the representatives OF any
other industry. Hence the Census Or
fee can do more for them than it can
for centralized lines of business, which
can and do make their own inyestiga-
tions, and it will do its best to present
full and accurate photograph OF this
leading occupation. The Director OF
the Census urges every one intere sted
to aid the work.
The Judge all Right.