LUSSONS FROM THE CENSUS. 75 



cause people would cook tlie leaves, whereas, in its native country, 

 it is only cultivated for its tender, fleshy roots/' 



I trust you are not discouraged at this outlook for our coming 

 vegetables. 



Two groups of improvable food-plants may be referred to be- 

 fore we pass to the next class, namely, edible fungi and the bever- 

 age-plants. All botanists who have given attention to the matter 

 agree with the late Dr. Curtis, of North Carolina, that we have in 

 the unutilized mushrooms an immense amount of available nutri- 

 ment of a delicious quality. It is not improbable that other fungi 

 than our common " edible mushroom " will by and by be subjected 

 to careful selection. 



The principal beverage-plants — tea, coffee, and chocolate — are 

 all attracting the assiduous attention of cultivators. The first of 

 these plants is extending its range at a marvelous rate of rapidity 

 through India and Ceylon ; the second is threatened by the pests 

 which have almost exterminated it in Ceylon, but a new species, 

 with crosses therefrom, is promising to resist them successfully ; 

 the third, chocolate, is every year passing into lands farther from 

 its original home. To these have been added the kola, of a value 

 as yet not wholly determined, and others are to augment the 

 short list. 



[To be concluded. '\ 



LESSONS FROM THE CENSUS. 



Br CAEROLL D. WEIGHT, A.M., 



TTNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF LABOR. 

 II. 



TO my own mind, the Federal census system is faulty in many 

 features. It is bungling, unwieldy, and unproductive of sci- 

 entific results. It is the legitimate growth of time and the honest 

 endeavor to secure broader and broader results to satisfy the 

 growing demand for information concerning all the conditions of 

 the people, and it is perfectly natural that the additions from 

 time to time should have resulted in the present system. The 

 system should be changed radically before another census period 

 comes around. 



To be specific in the condemnation of our system, attention 

 should be paid, first, to the method of enumeration. Vicious as it 

 is, it is a vast improvement upon that existing prior to 1880. 

 There are four methods of enumeration, or rather four methods 

 of enumeration have been tried on pretty extensive scales. The 

 English method consists in securing all the facts called for under 



