914 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 363. 



States ; hence only the more important data 

 concerning population, education and agri- 

 culture were collected. The work was in- 

 trusted chiefly to Cubans. The prevailing 

 idea was that the census was to be of 

 Cubans, by Cubans and for Cubans, and 

 that its successful accomplishment would 

 indicate their capacity for the subsequent 

 establishment and maintenance of civil 

 government. This decision was enthusias- 

 tically received by Cuban press and public. 

 President McKinley's proclamation, August 

 17, 1899, declaring the census a preliminary 

 step towards the establishment of self-gov- 

 ernment, completed the obliteration of all 

 suspicion of American motives theretofore 

 prevalent throughout the island. The As- 

 sistant Director, who was placed in full 

 charge of the census, reached Havana 

 August 20, 1899, established a temporary 

 office, and began dividing the island into 

 districts, a task difficult and arduous, 

 owing to a lack of accurate geographical 

 data. By September 15 the island had 

 been divided into 1,315 enumeration dis- 

 tricts — afterwards increased to 1 , 607 . Large 

 numbers of educated Cubans, then out of 

 employment, furnished an excellent field 

 from which'to select enumerators. 



In cases of doubtful literacy, persons were 

 required to read and write in the presence of 

 the enumerator, 'and, as to illiteracy statis- 

 tics, the Cuban census is probably the most 

 accurate on record. The enumeration was 

 fully completed bythetimerequired, Novem- 

 ber 30, 1899, Delay in a few remote districts 

 alone prevented a much earlier completion. 

 The complete results are published in Span- 

 ish and English separately. The volume of 

 800 pages contains information not else- 

 where obtainable concerning Cuba and the 

 Cubans. 



' Mechanical Tabulation of the Statistics 

 of Agriculture in the Twelfth Census of the 

 United States': H. T. Newcomb, Editor 

 Railway World, formerly Expert Chief of the 



Division of Agriculture in the Office of the 

 Twelfth Census. 



The public demanded of the twelfth cen- 

 sus a more extended, elaborate and detailed 

 investigation of American agriculture than 

 had been undertaken by any of its predeces- 

 sors. Previous censuses had collected the 

 basic facts necessary to answer the inquiries 

 of the public, but had never been able to 

 undertake the complicated and extensive 

 tabulation necessary fully to develop the 

 information that they might have been made 

 to supply. An investigation and tests pre- 

 scribed by law finally led to the adoption of 

 the Hollerith electrical tabulating machin- 

 ery. This is controlled by cards to which 

 the facts from the schedules returned by the 

 enumerators are transcribed by means of 

 perforations. Two kinds of cards were 

 used : one providing for a description of 

 single farms, and the other for the acreage, 

 production and value of each of the separate 

 crops raised on each farm. The facts indi- 

 cated on these cards are all stated quantita- 

 tively and the perforations were made by 

 machines somewhat similar in their manner 

 of operation to a typewriter. About 115,- 

 000,000 crop cards and nearly 6,000,000 

 farm cards were necessary, and the former 

 were punched at the rate of about 2,000, 

 the latter at the rate of about 1,000, per 

 day's work. These cards were fed into the 

 tabulating machines, which consisted each 

 of from three to ten connected adding ma- 

 chines impelled by electrical currents trans- 

 mitted through the perforations. Several 

 counting devices impelled in the same way 

 were also added to the machines for differ- 

 ent phases of the work ; at one time as 

 many as nineteen. , In running cards 

 through the machines an average of over 

 10,000 per day has been attained in the 

 later months. The Division of Agriculture 

 employs twelve of these tabulating ma- 

 chines for the farm cards and eighty-six for 

 the crop cards. 



