New Approaches and Methods for the 1950 Census of Agriculture

The agricultural censuses are one of the basic foundations of not only our statistics relating to crops, livestock, and farms generally but also of large blocks of agricultural economics research. Agricultural statisticians and researchers necessarily have a keen interest in any new methods of obtaining or new developments in tabulating and publishing census data. As State and county materials from the 1950 Census of Agriculture are now being released, the following article is timely. Ray Hurley, Statistician in Charge of the Agricultural Census, Bureau of the Census, and R. K. Smith, Vice Chairman of the U. S. D. A.'s Crop Reporting Board, describe some of the new approaches used by the Census to assure a more complete coverage of farms, some of the new sampling techniques, and the use of State "economic areas" as the basis for publishing certain kinds of census data. The discussion of the techniques used to obtain a more adequate coverage of both farms and subject matter, is not an attempt to evaluate the internal accuracy of the answers obtained—that task is still in process. A note has been added, over the signature of Dr. Hagood, describing the new concept or definition of farm population used in the 1950 Population Census and briefly summarizing its effect.-0. V. Wells.