298 AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS 



New Braintree, with 95 farms, returns 67 farm laborers ; while in the 

 adjoining town of Oakham, with lOG farms, none are returned. 



These returns, while they are of great value relatively, are yet so far 

 from the actual truth, as to be nearly valueless, except for purposes of 

 comparison, and it is to be regretted that some more perfect plan has not 

 been adopted in tliese investigations. But so long as the work is en- 

 trusted to political favorites, irrespective of other qualifications, rather 

 than to persons specially fitted for such labor, we may well despair of 

 reaching even an approximation to the truth. Among the many par- 

 ticular instances which might be cited to show the careless and untrust- 

 worthy manner in which these returns are collected by the assistant 

 marshals, the following are deemed sufficient for illustration : 



The assistant marshal for Haverhill and adjacent towns, returns as his 

 own, twenty-five acres improved land, at a valuation of one thousand 

 dollars ; while the assessors of his town value his real estate at $4,450. 

 The same marshal returns a neighbor as the owner of 205 acres of land, 

 (180 acres of it improved) at a valuation of only S700, while the assessors 

 appraise it at $8,150 ! If it be claimed that the marshal had no power 

 to correct any statement given him in the one case, it still remains true 

 that he should have returned a true " cash value" for his own property. 

 In the returns for the same town not a single ton of hay is returned 

 among the products of forty farms ! 



In the returns of products for the town of Westfield, 4,000 pounds of 

 rice are given ; forMendon, 273 ; for Stow, 90 ; for Rowley, 10 pounds. 

 Believing these entries to be incorrect, the several persons so reported as 

 rice producers, have been interrogated by this department, and the result 

 confirms previous belief One who was returned as having raised 2,500 

 pounds of rice, declares the statement to be " a mistake," as he " never 

 raised any rice." Another, reported to have raised 90 pounds, affirms it 

 to be " a great mistake," as he " never raised any." A third, reported 

 to have raised the modest amount of ten pounds, replies that it is " an 

 entire mistake." And so of the others ! 



In the returns for the town of Stoughton, no valuation is carried out 

 for six farms. In those for Amherst, no acres are returned for seventeen 

 farms. 



To show that the above are not isolated cases of gross errors and im- 

 perfections in the census returns, the following table has been prepared. 

 It exhibits the total number of tons of hay annually produced, and the 

 number of horses, cows, sheep and swine, returned for each county, by 

 the assessors of the several cities and towns, and also by the marshal of 

 the United States census, — the two returns being taken at the same time 

 or at very nearly the same time, and referring to the same year. 



