The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-09-29
ANSWERING CENSUS QUERIES
WILL HELP FARM PROFITS
Full and Fair Answers When the Enumeration Calls Are
Likely to Aid You and Certain to Aid Great
Many Other Farmers to Success
Especial information Service Department of Agcuurc)


When the census enumeration comes
around to the farm shortly after Jan.
1 next year, he will ask some ques-
tons that may sound like prying into
| the purely personal affairs of the
farmer. Now, the farmer, like every
other self-respecting man, dislikes
having his private affairs peeded into
and, unless he thinks about this thing
in advance, may have a disposition to
be unresponsive if not actually resis-
tant.
In actual fact, every question that
the enumerator will ask is an essen
tial question and has a direct bearing
on the personal welfare and prosper
ity of the individual farmer as well
as upon the advancement of the ag-
riculture of the advancement Nation
as a whole.
When the Bureau of the Census de-
cided to take the farm census in Jan
uary instead of in April, it did so
upon the advice of the United States
Department of Agriculture. The far
MGR is less likely to be very busy in
January than at the spring planting
and breeding season, and his products
and live stock are in better shape for
statistical treatment. Also, every
new question--and there are num-
Der of them--inserted in the agricul-
tulal schedule was placed there after
consultation with the Department of
Agriculture and for the purpose of
clearing up some specific situation IN
which the Department of Agriculture
is trying to aid the farmer.
Here are some questions that will
be asked: "Do you own all of this
faTm?" "Do you rent from others
part but not all of this FARM" DO
you rent from others all of this
FARM" "If you rent all of this farm,
what do you pay as rent?" "If you
own all or part of this farm was there !
any mortgage debt or other encum-
brance on the land SO owned on Jan
ua.y 1. 1920?" "What was the total
amount of debt or encumbrance on
land on this farm owned by you, Jan
uary /, 1920?"
Pertinent-Not Impairment
"What the Sam HILL" you may
inquire, "has the Government got TO
do with how much money | owe on
my land?" Well, two of the things
to which the Department of Agricul-
ture has been giving deepest thought
during the past several years are farm
tenancy and rural credits. The past
three censuscs have shown an in
crease in the number OF tenants.
Alarmists have fe]t-and said-that
The country is going to the bow-WoWsl
by the landlord route. The Depart
ment of Agriculture, however, looked
into the matter as we'll as it was able
and refused to be alarmed. Where 1t
was able to make surveys it discov-
cred that while the number of tenants
rs years old was greater in 1910 than
in 1900 or 1890, the number of ten
ants as years old was considerably
smaller in 1910 than in 1900 of 1890.
'fhe inference is that tenancy is
step toward ownership, that the
young fellow who becomes a tenant
farmer when he marries, say, is like
ly to be farm owner before his first
child is grown-the farm paid for
and the money that used to go to pay
off mortgage available for sending The
children to college.
Now, to the Department of Agr1c-
llture, that looks like thoroughly
normal, healthy, and beneficial pro-
,ess. To just the extent that tenancy
leads to farm ownership, it is a good
thing for the country and for the in
- Full Answers Essential t
But it has not been possible to get h