The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1910-07-01
CENSUS BUREAU.
PROGRESS
REVIEW OF THE PRESENT
STATUS OF IT'S NUMEROUS
INQUIRIES.

ting Results Into shape-seventy-
five Electric Punching Machines
Help - Population Announcements
Soon to Begin.
Washington, D. c., June 27.-An
idea of the wide scope, as well as of
the present status Of the various sta
tistical operations Of the Census Blu
reau, may be gained from a report
which Census Director Durand has
just made to Secretary Nagel, of the
Department of Commerce and Labor.
This report covers the progress of the
three great branches of the regular
decennial population, agricul-
+ture, and manufactures-and also the
current annual Investigations which
the bureau conducts from year to year
and certain special Investigations in
which it has recently been, engaged,
aside from the decennial census.
Concerning the population division,
the report states that the work of the
10000 enumerators has been substan-
tally completed. The schedules con-
tanning the population returns have
more than half the total number.
Some idea of the magnitude of the
work of the enumerators, which in
cludes the agricultural census as well
as the population, may be gained from
the fact that between October 3, 1909,
and May %, last, 32,747,132 schedules,
blanks, etc., were sent to supervisors
and enumerators, contained in 145,743
packages.
Work on Population Schedules.
When the population, schedules are
received they are subjected to hand
count for the purpose of determining
the number of people, on which the
pay of the enumerators is in most
cases based. They are then subjected
to examination with reference to their
correctness, especially with respect to
mother tongue and occupations. Next
they go to the punching machines,
where one card is punched for each
person; these cards will later be tab
ulated by electric tabulating ma
chimes.
The first of the new-style electric
punching machines we're received May
p; actual work with them on the re-
turns of 1910 was begun on May %,
and about Is of the machines are now
in operation day and night. There are
also about 14O of the old-style plunger
punching machines in use. At the
present time about $4,000 cards are
being punched daily, but it is expected
to increase this number shortly to 90O,-
900 cards, and to complete the punch
ing for the entire population by about
October /.
One-third Of Agricultural Schedules
Received.
The Agricultural division anticipates
the receipt of about 100000 farm
schedules, besides large number of
irrigation, plantation, florist, and nur-
sery schedules, as well as about 2,00O,-
600 schedules covering live stock in
cities and villages, not on farms. Fully
one-third of the schedules Of each kind
have already been received and are in
the hands of the clerks for examina-
ton and tabulation. The schedules
are first classified according to the
color of the farmer, the tenure, and
the size of the farm, and are then
tabulated by means of various kinds
of adding machines. About 200 ad-
ding machines will be used in this
work.
The agricultural division also has
charge OF the annual statistics OF cit
les. The returns for the fiscal year
190S-9 have been tabulated and are
about to 60 to the printer. Twenty
men are in the field collecting similar
statistics for the year 1909-10.
Relative to the division Of manufac-
lures, the report shows that about
1000 special agents have been put in
the field for the collection of statistics
of manufactures, in addition to 78
clerks detailed from the Washington
office for the same work. The work
of collecting these statistics in the
District of Columbia and Delaware is
entirely completed, In Maryland it is
practically completed, and In other
parts Of the country it Is about two.
thirds completed. The preliminary re-
port on manufactures for the District
OF Columbia has been given to the
press.
The division OF mines and quarries,
which a 4 branch of the manufactures