Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/640

 626 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

CHANGES IN THE AGRICULTURAL SCHEDULE

The schedule of agriculture looks somewhat appalling to the uninitiated, and scarcely less so to the fully initiated. Its many questions are, however, due to the complexity of American agri- culture; and it is difficult to see how any considerable condensa- tion could be made without sacrificing important information. In fact, it is only with the greatest difficulty that the Census Bureau is able to resist the pressure to elaborate the schedule still further. Experts in the Department of Agriculture, for example, interested in noting the progress in the cultivation of new prod- ucts and their adaptation to local conditions, constantly urge an increase in the number of items ; associations of live-stock breed- ers call for more detail regarding farm animals; fruit-growers for more detail regarding fruits, etc. The best that we have been able to do is to classify the questions more systematically under large groups, with conspicuous headings, and to simplify the phraseology and the instructions regarding them. The classi- fication into groups will enable the enumerator in many cases to pass over a number of the groups which do not apply to the agricultural conditions in his section of the country.

The most important change planned with respect to the cen- sus of agriculture relates particularly to the conditions in the southern states. Much of the land in the southern states is held in large plantations, but is operated, principally by negroes, in small tracts under a lease system. At the census of 1900 the only unit recognized was the so-called "farm," and the land operated by each tenant was treated as a separate farm. In other words, no recognition was given to the plantation as an agricultural unit. As a matter of fact, many, though not all, of the southern planta- tions are actual economic units, and the tenants who work on them are practically farm laborers employed by the plantation owner, although each is assigned a definite portion of land and is compensated by a share of the crop instead of by cash wages. On many plantations the tenants own no farm animals or farm implements, and work quite as much under the direction of the plantation-owner as hired farm hands in the North work under the direction of the farm-owner. There are, however, many