A Farm Census in the Rural Schools 883 



WHAT THE CENSUS HAS SHOWN US 



Appreciating the necessity for growth and improvement in the 

 agricultural industry of New York, Commissioner of Agriculture 

 Charles S. Wilson last winter deemed expedient the taking of a 

 state agricultural census, in order to deteraiine the nature of 

 the service wherein the Department's activities were most needed 

 and the localities wherein the need was greatest. Since no funds 

 were available for this purpose, a plan was devised for obtaining 

 the statistics through the aid of the rural schools, a plan that 

 Commissioner of Education John II. Finley readily approved, 

 and to which he and his assistants gladly gave valuable coopera- 

 tion and advice to carry the project to a successful tennination. 

 The work of enumeration was performed by upwards of 100,000 

 pupils in the public schools of the state, and was conducted under 

 the supervision of district superintendents, principals, and 

 teachers. 



The statistics most desired were certain data relating to the 

 live-stock industry of the state, which included horses, cattle, 

 sheep, swine, and poultry on hand January 1, 1916; also, for the 

 preceding year, the quantity of cereals produced, and the amount 

 of hay and forage, the number of silos, the number of bushels 

 of apples, potatoes, beans, onions, and. of tons of cabbage — a 

 total of thirty-two items. Information was much desired along 

 other lines of agricultural production, but the items named 

 included as much as it was thought possible for the children to 

 collect with any large degree of accuracy. 



The gathering of the information was entered into with 

 enthusiasm by a very large proportion of the 10,500 public schools 

 of the state. In many sections, however, the unusual amount of 

 snow and cold weather of the winter season made the work diffi- 

 cult of accomplishment, and in some it was necessarily postponed 

 until spring. A few districts failed to report at all, and in such 

 cases an average was made with other districts of the town for 

 which statistics had been received, investigation showing that such 



