Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1879 — PREPARING TO TAKE THE CENSUS. [ARTICLE]

PREPARING TO TAKE THE CENSUS.

Gen. Walker’s Plan for Securing Accurate Agricultural Statistics. Gen. Francis A. Walker, Superintendent of Census, with a view to securing greater accuracy and uniformity in the agricultural statistics to be compiled for the tenth census, has just issued a circular setting forth the aims and wishes of the bureau with regard to the method ofarranging such statistics. The agricmtural schedule annexed to the act of 1850, which is also made a part of the act of March 3, 1879, providing for the tenth census, requires a report of the chief productions of agriculture “during ths year ended June 1.” There is, however, no distinct agricultural year which ends on the Ist of June, and there is reason to believe that the statistics of agriculture from 1850 to 1870, in regard to many of the principal products, embraced portions of two different crops, inasmuch as the enumeration was protracted three, four, and even five months. By the act approved March 3,1879, it is provided that the tenth census shall be taken and completed during the month of June, 1880. This provision greatly reduces the liability to error which has been noted. As the enumeration begins on the Ist of June and closes on or before the 30th, all the crops which are gathered once a year will fall pretty clearly on one side or the other of the dividing line. -Thus, the cotton crop reported in the census will be that of 1879, gathered in the fall of that year, while the wool clip, or “ wool crop,” will be that of the spring of 1880, except in portions of California and Texas, where both a fall and a spring clip are secured. For certain agricultural products, however, there is no harvest in the usual sense of that term, but the product is gathered week by week or day by day, as it matures. Milk, butter, cheese, and meat belong to this class.

In view of the requirements of the law and the great importance of accurate statistical information relative to agriculture, it is deemed highly desirable that farmers should prepare themselves in advance to give the information with promptness and accuracy. It is urgently recommended, therefore, that agricultural journals and the officers of agricultural societies and clubs feive publicity to the announcement, and that all persons engaged in agriculture who shall receive this circular, or see it in the public prints, make notes from time to time of the quantities and values of their several crops gathered, and the number of acres of land planted, in order that their statements, when made to the enumerators, may be of the highest possible value. To remove any doubt that may arise concerning the crop to be returned in the census, the following list presents the several crops specially mentioned in the agricultural schedule, arranged as they fall into the calendar year 1879, or that of 1880, or are to be returned for the twelve months beginning June 1,.1879, and closing May 31, 1880. Of the crop of the calendar year of 1879: Wheat, corn, rye, oats, barley, buckwheat, rice, tobacco, cotton, potatoes, peas, and beans; orchards, vineyards, small fruits, hay, clover-seed, grass-seed, hops, hemp, flax, flax-seed, sugar-cane, and sorghum, acres and quality; bees, number of hives, pounds of honey and wax. Of the crop of the calender year 1880: Wool, number of fleeces and pounds; maple-sugar, pounds; maple-molasses, gallons. Of the yield of the twelve months ending May 31: Butter, cheese, and milk sold, quality; animals slaughtered, value; forest product and home manufactures, value. It is believed that by calling the attention of those interested to the subject the efforts of the bureau will be greatly facilitated.