NOT DOWN IN THE CENSUS. 303 



many, and there are few sections of the State where they are 

 not common. The dairy stock has a far higher standard of 

 quality, and money value, though this quality does not, of 

 course, appear in the returns. In a vast number of cases the 

 mere number is all that is thought necessary to give, and the 

 increased money value does not clearly appear. In the eyes 

 of an assessor or a census taker, apparently, a cow is a cow, 

 whether she is worth $20 or $200, and yet every farmer 

 knows that one cow may differ very much from another cow 

 in intrinsic and money value. In other words, quality, or 

 purity of blood, now has a great money value, vastly greater 

 than it had twenty years ago, and this is not, in the nature 

 of things, accurately represented in any census, as it is com- 

 monly taken. 



There are many other directions in which great improve- 

 ments have been made, which add greatly, not only to the 

 comforts of modern life, but to the ease and efficiency of work 

 on the farm, and which are not fully recognized in* any census, 

 such as the improved machinery by which economy of labor 

 is secured, saving the wear and tear of human muscle and, at 

 the same time, accomplishing greater results ; improvements 

 which have a money value far higher than that expressed in 

 the mere value of the machines or implements themselves, as 

 they appear in the enumeration. 



There is another respect in which vast improvements have 

 been made, but of which we find no evidence in the census. 

 The resort to manufactured and commercial fertilizers for the 

 supply of plant-food is not only of modern date, but it may 

 be said to have assumed its present important aspect wholly 

 within the last ten years. Previous to the enactment of what 

 is commonly called the fertilizer law, the farmer had no pro- 

 tection against fraud. There was no well-recognized stand- 

 ard to which commercial products of this character were 

 required to conform. Failure after failure, due sometimes to 

 the dishonesty of manufacturers or dealers, and to adultera- 

 tions which there were no adequate means to detect, some- 

 times to improper modes of application and treatment, had 

 led to a universal distrust and want of confidence in the value 

 of such fertilizers, and their use was, in consequence, very 

 limited. The law now gives a reasonable degree of protec- 



