The Newark journal. (Newark, Ark.) 1901-1959, 1910-03-11
CENSUS WILL DEVELOP DATA
Expected to Show Many important
Features as to Present Status
of the American Farmer.

United States Census Director Du-
rand states that the new inquiries in
~ general agricultural schedule for
the census of 1910 are expected to de-
velop important data on the questions
whether or not the native American
! farmer is holding his own against
the foreign homemaker in this coun
| try; the age period when the hired
| farm hand" becomes an Independent
| farmer himself; the age when the ten
ant farmer ceases to be a renter"
and becomes an owner; and also con-
corning other vital facts relative to
the social and industrial tendencies
among the millions of tillers of the
| soil in the first decade of the TWEEN
/ tieth century.
The new questions were added to
the farm schedule by authority of the
act of congress providing for the thir-
teenth and subsequent decennial cen
sus, but United States Census Di-
rector Durand was instructed to de-
termine the form and subdivision of
| inquiries-in other words, to frame
the main questions and the sub-inquir
les concerning the 5S groups of topics
embraced in the schedule.
As approximate accuracy in the re-
! turns from the enumeration depends
not only upon the supervision and
enumerators, but largely also upon
| the form of the schedule, Census Di-
| rector Durand called into consulta-
ton with himself and his administra-
| tive staff this summer a number of
| farm economists and farM-manage-
ment experts who assisted in the pre-
paration of the questions with a view
to simplicity and clarity of language
and the avoidance of technical terms
not in common use. A comparison of
| the new schedule with the one used
in the census of 1900 shows that great
progress has been made in this di-
rection. 1t is believed the enumera-
tors will have less difficulty in under
standing what information the 1910
schedule is trying to bring out and
that the farmers will be able to give
fuller and more accurate replies. The
new schedule will also facilitate the
use of a more thorough system of
office checking whereby inaccuracies
may be discovered.
The new inquiries fall into three
| classes First, those seeking infor-
nation not obtained by former cen
suses; second, those calling for more
extensive data on previous census
topics; and, finally, those concerning
conditions or industries which have
arisen since the last census.
In the first class are those inquiries
concerning the age of the farmer and
the country of his birth; mortgage in
debtedness; acreage to be planted to
crops in the year 1910; breed of pure
bred animals, and acreage of mixed
| timothy and clover hay
| In the second class are the inquiries
relative to the amount of feed pur-
chased for livestock and the amount
and value of livestock purchased; the
separate from honey, and amount of
pasture land under irrigation.
In the third class the new questions
| provide for the separation of wheat
| into it's various varieties-common
| spring, common winter, Durum or
| macaroni, Emmer, and spelt; for the
| increase of the number of the varie-
| ties of vegetables from to II: for
the addition of guinea fowls and pig
cons to the poultry list; for the state
ment of the amount received for
standing timber; for the amount of
woodland on the farm, and for the
amount received for pasturing domes-
tic animals
The farmers answers concerning
| their ages should throw much light on
social conditions in agriculture. From
| these it will be possible to calculate
with reasonable accuracy the age
when young man passes out of the
ranks of the hired farm hand and
| becomes either a tenant or owner of a
| farm, possessing his own implements,
machinery, livestock and property.
| The answers will help fix the age at
which a farmer may expect to stop
being a renter" and arrive at the dig
nifty of ownership of the soil Whether
or not it is becoming more and more
difficult for an American farmer to
rise from the tenant" class to that
of farm ownership will be pretty
clearly indicated by the classification
of mortgaged farms by age periods. If
farmers under 35 have relatively, the
greatest mortgage indebtedness, it
VIII be talr TOR statlstlcans 10 assume
that the Indebtedness has been in
CURED in the purchase of the farm.