The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1910-04-21
CENSUS is ON.

Vi OHCle Odm , great ueCeuUldl ASK Vi
counting noses and taking stock, a
task imposed upon him by the consti-
tuition of the United States. That
morning, in every nook and corner Of
the country, the $4,000 census enumer-
ators took to the field with pencil and
pad in hand. When their work is
completed and the results tabulated
by the wonderful electric devices nov
in use in the census office your
Uncle Sam will know to what extent
his family has increased during the
past ten years. He will know also
how rich he is, how prosperous he is,
and how his farms, manufactures,
mines and quarries are faring and
everything else worth knowing about
himself.
The actual collection Of data will
continue fifteen days in the cities
and thirty days in the country, dis
tricts. Each enumerator is assigned
a certain area to cover. First, the
location Of the house, the street and
the city or town will be taken. Then
will mn the full name of the per-
son, his or her relationship to the
head of the family, sex, color or race,
age at last birthday, whether single
married, widowed or divorced, and
number OF years OF present marriage.
Then will be %chronicled the place Of
birth, trade or profession, general ma
ture of industry, whether employee or
employer, ability to read and write,
physical defects, whether the home Is
owned or mortgaged, and whether the
person is a survivor Of the Union or
Confederate army or navy.
Statistics will be taken in respect
to all lines of industry, but Of great
est importance of all is the farm GEN.
sus. New inquiries in the general
agricultural schedule are expected to-
develop important data on the ques-
tions, whether the American farmer
is holding his own against the foreign
born homeseeker in this country: the
age period when the hired farm
hand becomes an Independent farm
er himself; the age when the tenant
farmer ceases to be a renter" and
becomes an owner. and also other
vital facts relative to the social and
industrial tendencies among the mil
lions Of tillels of the soil.
The farmer will be questioned in
regard to his mortgage Indebtedness,
the acreage to be planted to crops in
1910, breed of pure-bred animals, and
acreage of mixed. timothy and clover
hay. He will be asked to tell also the
amount Of food purchased for live
stock, the amount and value OF the
live stock, the value Of eggs sold, the
amount Of pasture land under irriga-
ton and numerous other things Of in
terest and value to the student Of
farm conditions. The new inquiries
concerning wheat are expected to re-
veal the immense progress made in
this crop. In the inquiries nee
directly traced the agitation during
extension and conservation
DR.. E. Dana Durand, the chief Of
the ensus bureau, hopes to be able
by June 1 to report the number of in.
habitants In the United States, prob
ably between 88, 900, 900 and 81.
600, 900. 1t will take four months to
cover the manufacturing interests
and probably three years to tabulate
and study the vast undertaking. The
completed task will represent the Ia
bors Of $4,000 men and women enum.
orators and $50 regular and 5000
temporary clerks in the census bur.
a u The census will cover not only
the United States but Hawaii. Porto
Rico and Alaska. Nothing will be
left undone to make the enumeration
as correct and az complete as posi-
BILE. A total Of 81, 900, 900 is to be
expended in the work. In this con-
~nection it is interesting to note that
the sum of $4,000 was thought suf-
ficient to cover the cost of the first
general census in 1890. This census
covered the original thirteen states
and showed a population of 5000, 900
whites and 70O,0 900 slaves.
Following is the population of the
U. S. taken by past
1870 2 900 Ola