Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1900-04-11
SOME POINTS ON THE CENSUS.
Many Coed Recommendations That are Of Value
to al. Especially the Farmers.


To build up great office like the
Census Office in fifteen months from ab-
solutely 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 at
tanned at the same period ten years ago
and tried by this test it has gained sey-
eral months on its predecessor. One Of
the problems before it is how to put in
the time thus secured in such way as
to most benefit 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 6heir
accounts as well rs manufacturers, and
the returns from farmers may occasion
ally include serious errors which
trained eye wilt at once detect Hence
the farm schedules must be examined
and such errors corrected before the ta-
bles can be made up from them with
safety. Ii farmer reports that his
land sown TO wheat was ten acres and
the yield four thousand bushels. it ia
clear that an average yield Dt fo,-r han
dred bushels TO the acre is incredible.
and must be rejected or corrected In ac-
cordance with the probabilities. some
times the truth van be made out BY an
expert from comparison 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 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 required and
they must have hard and fast rules to
guide them For example they might
be told; When the wheat report shows q
product of over forty bushels to the acre
uhey are suspicious, and it must be laid
aside for an expert to pass upon. But
any such rules must vary with the sec
tion Of the country. A yield of twenty
bushels in one section might be more
questionable than q yield of forty bush
els in another Hence the division must
fix in advance what is the range of re-
ports 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 correspond
ence now being carried on by the agri-
cultural division, under the direction of
Mr. L. q. Powers. chief statistieian
in charge of that division. Three sim
pie 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, a
| second covers fruits. and the third the
great staple field crops. Each asks
about the units of measure employed
and the net price realized. and the two
more importan5 schedules, those for
staple field products and for vegetable,
ash for the highest and lowest yield Of
each clop per acre. These schedules
are being mailed to prominent farmers
| All over the country and in many in
stances returns have already been re-
| ceived When the returns have l,efn
received and taoulated, scheme will be
made from them of what is TO be accepted
4
be probeG farther. The only aim of the
office is to get what was really the in
tention of the farmer in answering the
questions II the presumption is strong
ly against his meaning what the sched-
ule says. the Office viii try to learn by
correspondence from the supervisor, or
the enumerator or the farmer himself
what the real facts were.
! If the farming public will continue
TO cooperate with the heartiness already
displayed, this effort will result in a
| more trustworthy census of farms than
has ever been ta zen Farmers, as a
class, are less able TO cooperate than the
representatives of any other great indus
try. Hence the census Office can do
more for them than il can for central
lied lines of business. which can and do
make their own investigation, and it
will do its best to present full and ac-
curate photograph of this leading occu-
patton. The director of the census
urges every one interested to aid the
work