HUMAN EFFORT AS A FACTOR IN PRODUCTION 213 



The more or less imperfect census record is the only information 

 possessed in regard to the number of persons engaged gainfully in 

 agriculture in this country. It is very considerably an imperfect 

 record previous to the census of 1900, for the reason, principally, that 

 enumerators often reported agricultural laborers as laborers without 

 any designation of kind of work done by them, and for this reason the 

 agricultural element in the population is represented as being less 

 than the fact. It may be that in some small degree this observation 

 applies to the census of 1900. 



In 1820 the number of persons of both sexes reported as being 

 engaged in agriculture was 2,068,958, including slaves, and with the 

 same inclusions the number for 1840 was 3,719,951; by 1880 the 

 number had increased to 7,663,043; by 1890 to 8,466,363; and by 

 1900 to 10,249,651 (census report on occupations). 1 In the later cen- 

 suses the persons are described as having been employed gainfully, 

 a distinction not made in the earlier ones. The statements are for the 

 contiguous states and territories of the Union. 



The agricultural element was 83.1 per cent of persons having 

 occupations in 1820; 77.5 per cent in 1840; for gainful occupations, 

 44 . i per cent in 1880; 37 . 2 per cent in 1890; 35 . 3 per cent in 1900. 

 For 1910 the inference is that one-third or less of the persons having 

 gainful occupations are embraced in the agricultural class. 1 



Agricultural laborers constitute one of the primary classes of 

 occupations, and their number, as before stated, has been reported by 

 all censuses as below the fact because the enumerators have reported 

 many of them as general laborers. Another element of error has been 

 the reporting of negro "croppers" in the South in the census of 1870 

 and subsequent ones as farmers, whereas they would have been more 

 properly designated as farm laborers, since they worked for wages, 

 although the wages were contingent. Taking the record as it stands, 

 the number of agricultural laborers in 1880 was 3,323,876; in 1890 it 

 was 3,004,061; in 1900, 4,410,877. The erroneous character of the 

 census enumeration with regard to agricultural laborers appears when 

 it is observed that they were represented as being 43 . 4 per cent of all 

 persons engaged gainfully in agriculture in 1880; only 35.5 per cent 

 in 1890; and 43 per cent in 1900. 



x The number for 1910 was 12,567,925 and the percentage 32.9 according to 

 Table 9 (p. 41) of the "Occupational Statistics" (Vol. IV) of the Thirteenth Census, 

 but this table shows figures slightly higher than those given above for previous 

 years. EDITOR. * 



