METHOD OF PRESENTING STATISTICS. As already stated, the present volume is a summary and general presentation of the results of the census of agriculture, not including the special inquiries with regard to irrigation and drainage. Statistics for divisions and states.-In most cases the tables in this volume give figures for each state, as well as for the United States as a whole. Because of the large number of states, however, and for other reasons, it is difficult to indicate the broad geographic conditions affecting the status of agriculture by means of the figures for individual states. In addition, therefore, to the presentation of statistics by states, this volume gives statistics for nine groups of states which are designated "geographic divisions." The figures for geographic divisions are given in practically every case at the head of the table which contains the figures for the individual states. This plan reduces the comparisons necessary to a general understanding of the geographic differences in conditions to a number which can be readily grasped. The states within each of these divisions are for the most part fairly homogeneous in physical characteristics, as well as in the characteristics of their population and their economic and agricultural conditions, while on the other hand each division differs more or less sharply in these respects from most of the others. The grouping of the states in geographic divisions has facilitated a geographical rather than an alphabetical order in the tables which present the statistics by states. The advantage of this geographical order lies chiefly in the ease with which figures for adjoining states can be compared. Comparative and derivative figures.-In the tables of this volume an effort has been made to increase the value of the statistics for the census of 1920 by the introduction of comparative figures for earlier censuses, especially for the census of 1910, and by the presentation of important ratios, averages, and percentages. The full significance of the census data is brought out most effectively by comparisons between different censuses for the same area and between different states or geographical areas for the same census; and comparisons based upon absolute numbers are usually much less instructive and less readily grasped than those based upon the percentages and averages. Text discussion of tables. In this volume the text is limited for the most part to that which is absolutely necessary to explain the general features of the tables. It is confined in the main, therefore, to the presentation of the necessary definitions and a brief comment upon the most significant of the United States totals, with reference to other figures only where necessary to explain unusual conditions. Maps and diagrams have been employed to present graphically some of the most important facts ascertained by the census. These maps and diagrams have so far as possible been printed in immediate connection with the tables giving the statistics upon which they are based. AGRICULTURAL CENTERS. Explanation. The location of the center of the number of farms, and of the other agricultural "centers," is computed by a method which gives weight to the figures for each county in proportion to its distance from an assumed approximate center. The basis of this computation may be explained through a physical analogy. For example, if the surface of the United States be considered a rigid plane, itself without weight, and the farms be assumed to be of equal weight, the center of the number of farms is the point where the plane would balance, if a pivot were placed under it at that point. Computed in this way, the center is affected by any change in the distribution of the number of farms, in any part of the country, and thus forms a more sensitive index than the median point, which is simply the point of intersection of the lines which divide the number of farms into halves, respectively, east and west, and north and south. NOTE.-The centers for manufactures and for all crops except cotton are based on data for the year preceding the census year indicated on the map; for the centers of cotton production the exact dates are shown on the map. (20) Population, number of farms, total land area, and acreage of all land in farms and of improved land in farms: 1850 to 1920.. 38 Per cent distribution of number of farms, all land in farms, and improved land in farms: 1850 to 1920..... Percentage of total land area in farms and percentage repre- sented by improved farm land: 1850 to 1920............. Percentage of farm land improved, 1850 to 1920, and percentage in woodland, 1880, 1910, and 1920.... Average acreage per farm of all land in farms, and of improved Percentage of total land area in farms, by states: 1920.... Value of all farm property and of the several classes, 1920 and 1910, and value of land alone and of buildings, 1900....... 48 Value of all farm property and of the several classes: 1850 to Average value per farm of all farm property and of the several Percentage of value of all farm property represented by each class of property, by states: 1920............. Number of farms in the United States: 1850 to 1920............. Improved and unimproved land in farms in the United States, and land not in farms: 1850 to 1920................ Value of farm property, by classes: 1850 to 1920.. Introduction. This chapter gives the principal data relating to farms and farm property for each of the censuses from 1850 to 1920. The figures for 1920 and 1910 are presented somewhat more in detail than those for the earlier censuses, with percentages of increase, in order to give due emphasis to recent changes; but most of the important items are also shown for all of the census years beginning with 1850, the date of the first relatively complete census of agriculture in the United States. The figures presented herewith relate to the area known as continental United States, comprising the 48 states and the District of Columbia. The totals for the United States as a whole are given in two summary tables, and statistics are presented in a series of detailed tables for the several states and for nine geographic divisions or groups of states. These divisions are made up for the most part of states having many characteristics in common, and the statistics presented in this form afford a basis for comparisons between areas larger than the individual states. The data relating to farms and farm property, which are presented in this chapter as simple totals, are classified in various ways in other chapters, as follows: Chapter II, "Size of Farms"; Chapter III, "Farm Tenure"; Chapter IV, "Farm Statistics by Color and Tenure of Farmer"; Chapter V, "Farm Statistics by Race, Nativity, and Sex of Farmer"; and Chapter VII, "Farm Mortgages." The number of farms (or of farmers) alone is further classified in Chapter VI, "Farm Operators by Age, Number of Years on Farm, and Farm Experience.' Population. The population of the United States on January 1, 1920, was 105,710,620, as compared with 91,972,266 on April 15, 1910, these figures representing an increase of 13,738,354, or 14.9 per cent. Of the total population in 1920, 51,406,017, or 48.6 per cent, were classified as rural, while in 1910 the rural population formed 54.2 per cent of the total. There has been a gradual decrease in the percentage of the population classified as rural since the classification was established by the Bureau of the Census. In 1920, however, for the first time, the rural population formed less than one-half of the total. Rural population, as defined by the Bureau of the Census, is the population residing outside of incorporated places having 2,500 inhabitants or over. It is evident that the population thus classified includes much more than the farming population. There is, however, a closer relation between the rural population and the number of farms, for example, than there is between the total population and any of the agri cultural data. 1 Farms and farm acreage: 1920 and 1910.-There' were in the United States on January 1, 1920, 6,448,343 farms, containing 955,883,715 acres, of which 503,073,007 acres were improved, and 452,810,708 acres unimproved. Of this latter acreage 167,730,794 acres were reported as woodland and 285,079,914 acres as other unimproved land. The census classification of farm land as "improved land," "woodland," and "other unimproved land" is one not always easy for the farmers or the enumerators to make, and the statistics must therefore be considered at best only a close approximation. The definitions of the three classes, as given to the enumerators, were substantially as follows: Improved land includes all land regularly tilled or mowed, land in pasture which has been cleared or tilled, land lying fallow, land in gardens, orchards, vineyards, and nurseries, and land occupied by farm buildings. Woodland includes all land covered with natural or planted forest trees which produce, or later may produce, firewood or other forest products. Other unimproved land includes brush land, rough or stony land, swamp land, and any other land which is not improved or in forest. A summary of the principal items from the census of agriculture for the United States as a whole for the years 1920 and 1910 is presented in Table 1, which also indicates the amount and percentage of increase for the intervening decade. The land in farms in 1920 represented 50.2 per cent, or slightly more than one-half, of the total land area of the country. The improved land, which formed 52.6 per cent of the farm land, represented only a little over one-fourth (26.4 per cent) of the total land area of the country. The average size of the farms in the country as a whole was 148.2 acres and the average acreage of improved land per farm was 78. That part of the total land area not in farms is occupied by mountains, deserts, mining property, forests, swamps, roadways, cities, country estates, etc. A part of this land is now used for range pasture; a part may be converted into farms by inclosure or by clear1A "farm" for census purposes is all the land which is directly farmed by one person managing and conducting agricultural operations, either by his own labor alone or with the assistance of members of his household or hired employees. The term "agricultural operations" is used as a general term, referring to the work of growing crops, producing other agricultural products, and raising domestic animals, poultry, and bees. A "farm" as thus defined may consist of a single tract of land or of a number of separate and distinct tracts, and these several tracts may be held under different tenures, as where one tract is owned by the farmer and another tract is hired by him. When a landowner has one or more tenants, renters, croppers, or managers, the land operated by each is considered a "farm." In applying the foregoing definition, enumerators were instructed to report as a "farm" any tract of 3 or more acres used for agricultural purposes, and also any tract containing less than 3 acres which produced at least $250 worth of farm products in the year 1919, or required for its agricultural operations the continuous services of at least one person. |