The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-09-08
HUMAN NATURE IN CENSUS.
Comedy and Tragedy Met with
Among the Farmers


The census enumerators VINO collected
the statistics for the 5000, coo farm sched-
ules sometimes met with varied diff
eultles- In many instances the farmers
were reluctant to give any statistics as
to their crops and the value of their
farms, fearing that the Information was
to be used in making up the tax lists.
others went to the opposite extreme and
believing that the figures for individual
farms would be published gave extraor-
binary figures in order to make a. good
showing for their farms, says the New
York Sun. 49, s afjc
One Indiana farmer who, it is. to be IN
ferred, had a. good farm to sell, made
return that from his fifty acres he had
raised LOCO bushels of wheat, 800 bushes
of oats, eight tonseof hay, 400 bushels of
potatoes, go bushels of apples, 1,200
bushels of corn and 43 bushels of to-
matoes, in addition to garden truck He
had fed nineteen head of cattle and nine
horses. Another Indiana man had the
champion chicken He reported to- the
census bureau that he had obtained coo
eggs during the year. In his schedule
ne said he had one hen When the dis
crepancy- was noticed ne was asked by
the bureau to explain it and he replied
that he had had other chickens during
the year, but could not tell how many.
In reply to some questions by the bu-
reau an Ohio woman wrote as follows:
Dear Mr.. Census Director: am
ASH to tell you how little we raised
last year you see My Old Man is not
much good. 1 have been Married three
times. The fust drunk himself to deth
ana the second run away about years
ago. . i'm, he's MY Old Man now ain't
any good nohow and Id like to get rid
of him.
Last year the calves got into our gar
den SO much there wasn't any garden
truck. and Jim he forgot to man1ire fhe
wheat so it wasn't much and / guess we
oldnt get morn s or hundred bl1sheI q
OF corn and the appls was all moldy and
rotten. This place belongs to me and /
just told jim I was ashamed to tell Won
now poor off we was and If had 10
writ again like this would fire him off
Ole place. NO more. from yours truly,
Amanda Tt
Al: An enthusiastic amateur farmer, who
Iaves IN Chicago obtained a farming
schedule and wrote to the bureau thai
taLltno9gh ne hadn't much ground he
uhought ne was entitled to- be recorded
as horny handed son of toll No soid
ne mad about his house, yard Contain
ing about quarter of an acre. and ON
ms ms ne ne raised in 1899 three bushels of
POTATOES, sixteen heads of cabbage a
Dushel OF tomatoes. two bushels of peas
peck OF currants. sixteen quarts of
rasppefr1eS, hfty-four ears of corn and
a. peck Of beans. A ounce tree gave
procured fifteen pounds of grapes and
pushed and a half of apples He At
ted up some bee hives in the garrett of
ms mousse, and from one of them had
taken twenty-one pounds of honey, IN
MS cellar he cultivated mushrooms. and
ne estimated he. had raised about three
quarts of these in the year The anna
teur FARMER was reported. as the bureau
thought he was doing Sery nicely.
Perhaps the most pathetic letter that
came to the agricultural division was
one from an old Vermont farmer who
wanted to enlist the services of the bu-
rean in finding his only son. Part of
his letter reads:
Il understand that in taking the CEN
Sus you take the names of every man.
weman and child in the country TT &C.
CURED to mother and me that your men
| must ind somewhere our Tom and If
they have you would know it. Our bow
went away nineteen years ago and we
haven't heard on him sence. 1 guess I'm
| to blame. for it all
Il worked him too hard, and we often
had WORDS about it. until one day re
! says he was going to be his own master
! and | guess he has, for off he went and
| never came back.
Mother and me is getting old. and
! she's almost blind. Nothing will satisfy
! her except Tom, and L don't know how
| TO get him home: Now, Mr. Director II
! 1T would not be too much trouble could
| you have one of your young men look
over the names and find Thomas Jeffer-
son Turnover and tell US where he is;
There might be two of them and nothe,
| says maybe more, so she wanted me to
tell you when he left home he had lighi
hair and blue eyes and weighed about
| $50 pounds. He must be thirty4eight
| years old now and six feet tall If he
| VIII let pygones be- bygones mother and
me is willing he shall have the ole
place." E~lss :