APPENDIX A. 

 General Explanation 



Page 



TAKING THE CENSUS A-1 



OFFICE PROCESSING A-1 



DEFINITIONS AND EXPLANATIONS A-1 



FARM CLASSIFICATIONS A-4 



TAKING THE CENSUS 

 Report Form 



The report form for the 1982 Census of Agriculture was 

 prepared by the Outlying Areas Branch of the Agriculture 

 Division, Bureau of the Census, in cooperation with the 

 Department of Agriculture of the Virgin Islands. It contained 82 

 inquiries, many with several parts. The inquiries were based on 

 current requirements for agricultural information and, to some 

 extent, on the desire for comparability with earlier censuses. 



The only modification made to the 1982 census report form 

 was the omission of the source of financmg section which was 

 included in the last census (see appendix B). 



Training Program 



The project manager, crew leader, and enumerators em- 

 ployed for the census in the Virgin Islands received special 

 training for the job in accordance with instructions prepared by 

 the Bureau of the Census. The training included practice in 

 interviewing, filling out the report form, and detailed discussion 

 of the enumerator's instructions. 



Method of Enumeration 



As in the previous censuses of the Virgin Islands, the direct 

 enumeration procedure was used in the 1982 Census of 

 Agriculture. The statistics in this report represent totals of data 

 collected from farm operators during the period from July to 

 the end of August 1983. For the enumeration, the Virgin Islands 

 were divided into six Enumeration Districts (ED's) and each 

 district was clearly delineated on special ED maps prepared for 

 the census. 



Each enumerator was assigned an ED and given a map of the 

 area to be enumerated. The enumerators were also given a list of 

 the persons from whom a report form had been obtained in the 

 1978 Census of Agriculture as well as other persons known to 

 be conducting farm operations. The enumerators were required 

 to check all persons on their list. 



Enumerators were also instructed to ask enough questions 

 about tracts of land on which no one lived to determine 

 whether agricultural data should be collected from the person in 

 charge of the land. This procedure was designed to assure the 

 complete coverage of all land used for agriculture, whether by 

 an individual, a corporation, or an institution. 



To avoid enumeration of the same place more than once, 

 rules were established whereby enumerators could determine 

 who was responsible for completing a report form for a given 



place. If the person in charge of an agricultural operation lived 

 outside of the ED in which the land under his/her control was 

 located, the enumerator assigned to the ED in which the 

 operator resided was responsible for completing his/her report 

 form. If a place was partly in one ED and partly in another, the 

 enumerator for the ED in which the operator lived was 

 responsible for completing the report form to include all the 

 land the person operated in the Virgin Islands, regardless of the 

 ED. 



OFFICE PROCESSING 



The office processing was done in the Agriculture Division at 

 the Bureau of the Census. Each report form was edited and 

 coded prior to being data keyed. Report forms obtained for 

 places not meeting the census farm definition criteria were 

 voided. The remaming report forms were examined for 

 accuracy, consistency, and completeness. Enumerators' errors in 

 computations and in units of measures, inconsistencies, and 

 misplaced entries were corrected. Missing information was 

 derived and entered on incomplete reports on the basis of 

 related information on the same report form or from report 

 forms for nearby farms of similar type and size. 



After all the forms had been edited and coded, the data were 

 encoded onto magnetic tape and subjected to a thorough 

 computer edit analysis. Any inconsistencies were reviewed, 

 corrected, and encoded to magnetic tape. The corrected data 

 were then tabulated by the computer and printed out for 

 review. 



Subject matter specialists reviewed the computer tabulations 

 for reasonableness and consistency. Corrections were made on 

 the basis of a reexamination of the original report forms. The 

 data were then retabulated and a printout was provided so that 

 the data tables could be prepared for final publication. 



DEFINITIONS AND EXPLANATIONS 



The following definitions and explanations relate to those 

 items that are considered to be inadequately described in the 

 tables. Most of the definitions are from the instructions given to 

 enumerators. For an exact wording of the questions and 

 instructions on the report form, see the report form in appendix 

 B. 



Farm operator— The term "operator" designates a person who 

 operates a farm, either by doing the work himself/herself or by 

 directly supervising the work. The operator may be the owner, a 

 member of the owner's household, a hired manager, or a tenant, 

 renter, or sharecropper. If the operator rents land to others or 

 has land worked on shares by others, he/she is considered the 

 operator only of the land retained for his/her own operation. In 

 the case of partnership, only one partner is counted as an 

 operator. By definition, the number of operators is the same as 

 the number of farms. 



AGRICULTURE-GEOGRAPHIC AREA SERIES 



APPENDIX A A-1 



