Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/643

CHANGES IN CENSUS METHODS 629 as wheat, which are not adapted for feeding to animals, we shall ask simply the quantity produced and its value, and treat the entire amount as a direct net product of the farm. By adding, therefore, the value of those crops which are produced exclusively for sale, the value of animals sold and slaughtered, and the value of the sales of such crops as are adapted for the feed of animals, and deducting from this total the value of feed and animals purchased, the net value of the product of the farm is secured. These changes involve additional questions on the schedule, but they are absolutely essential to getting the true net value of the product.

Another change of some importance in the farm schedule consists in the attempt to ascertain the quantity of woodland on farms, and to distinguish pasture land of different classes. At the census of 1900 the only distinction made as to the types of land was that between improved and unimproved land. At the present census we shall, in one inquiry, distinguish (1) improved land; (2) woodland whose principal value is in the forest products; and (3) all other unimproved land; and shall in another inquiry ask regarding pasture land, distinguishing it into three classes: (1) woodland pasture containing more or less scattered timber but not properly classified as woodland; (2) improved land in pasture; and (3) all other pasture land. Those interested in forestry, as well as those interested in the grazing industry, consider these changes essential to the proper classification of the farm lands of the country.

It is possible to get more accurate returns of the manufacturing industries than of agriculture, because most manufacturers keep book accounts. The same is true to a large extent of mining. We shall endeavor to impress upon the special agents who collect statistics of manufactures and mines the necessity of securing actual bookkeeping figures wherever they exist. With a view to making this possible within the available limits of time, we have very materially reduced the inquiries in the manufactures schedule. The number of inquiries eliminated is small, but those