18—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 2,1968
General Plans Made For '69 Ag. Census
The conduct of the 1969 Cen
sus of Agriculture will differ in
a number of important ways
from the conduct of previous
censuses of agriculture. Farm
ers will be asked to fill out and
mail back their 'questionnaires,
and enumerators will be used
only to follow-up as necessary.
A full questionnaire will go only
to the larger farms and a sim
plified questionnaire will be
sent to the smaller farms. Some
of the detailed questions which
apply to only a limited number
of farms will be covered in spec
ial questionnaires to be sent out
after the main questionnaires
have been collected.
In 1964, 27.5 percent of the
farms had a gross value of sales
of $lO,OOO or over, but they ac
counted for more than 80 per
cent of the total value of farm
products sold. Farms with a
gross value of sales of less than
$2,500 'were 42 percent of the
total, but they accounted for
less than 2 5 percent of the total
value of sales.
In order to bring the resour
ces spent on collecting and pro ;
cessing the data in line with the
economic contribution of the
farms, two versions of the gen
eral questionnaire will be used.
For larger farms, the content
will be similar to that of the
1964 questionnaire For smaller
farms, an abbreviated version
will be used which will call for
less detail than that for the larg
er farms Tabulations and publi
cations will show some data for
all farms and the more detailed
information only for the largei
farms Tentatively the dividing
line is set at a gross value of
sales of $2,500.
Content
The general farm question
naire will be used to collect
basic data on such inventory
items as livestock and poultry,
and specified facilities and
equipment on farms as of Janu
ary 1, 1970. It will also be used
to collect basic production data
for the year 1969 for crops and
livestock, and information on
land use, use of commercial fer
tilizers, specified expenditures
and value of sales.
Certain supplemental ques
tions will be asked of the larger
commercial farms as of January
1, 1971 These will be adapted
to the type of farm involved, in
cluding those specializing in ve
getables, fruit, dairying, poultry
and livestock. Consideration is
also being given to a separate
sample survey to provide data
by States on farm debt, taxes,
and related subjects
For the year 1969, data will
also be collected from indivi
duals, establishments and opera
tions that obtain more than half
of their annual income by per
forming agricultural services
such as custom or contract
planting, spraying or harvest
ing; veterinary services; feed
grinding, and mixing: etc
Relation
A Census of Population and
Housing is to be taken as of
April 1, 1970 This census will
be the primary source of data
on the characteristics of rural
people, including those living on
farms. The information to be
collected in that census includes
an identification of households
living on farms and data con
cerning the age, sex, color, fam
ily status, education, occupa
tion, and income of the popula
tion. Information will also be
provided about farm housing, in
cluding data on the characteris
tics of the housing units, as well
as certain items of equipment
within them It is planned to
bring together the information
from the Census of Agriculture
and the Census of Population
and Housing for a carefully se-
lected sample. Accordingly, the
Census of Agriculture question
naire will not include questions
concerning the members of the
farm operator’s household as
was done in 1964.
AdvanUges
The proposed new data collec
tion and processing methods nre
expected to produce more and
better information than previ
ous censuses. The January 1 ref
erence date for livestock and
poultry inventories now agrees
with the date used by the U. S.
Department of Agriculture for
their annual estimates.
The burden on respondents will
be reduced. (1.) Farmers will
be able to fill questionnaires af
ter the e n d of the reference
year; thus, they will be relieved
of the necessity of estimating
future action. (2.) Questionnaires
may be filled at a time preferred
by farmers, subject to reason
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able limits. (3.) One to one and
one-half million respondents will
be required to fill only the short
er general questionnaire. (4.)
Only about one-third of all farm
operators will be required to an
swer the questionnaires designed
to secure specialized data di
rectly pertinent to the type of
agricultural operations they are
conducting.
frhe proposed system is ex
pected to produce more accur
ate agricultural statistics be
cause errors introduced by
enumerators will be reduced;
respondents may be more will
ing to give information by mail
than to a neighbor temporarily
employed as an enumerator;
and respondents will have more
opportunity to use accounting or
other farm records.
It is recognized that the ap
proach through mailing lists pre
pared in advance may lead to
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Paradise
some differences in results from erative approach similar to that
those which would be obtained of 1964 will be conducted in or
if enumerators went to all rural der to appraise any differences
places in order to Identify those which may' affect the compara
which are classified as farms. A bllity of the results of the 1969
sample survey, using an enum- and 1964 censuses.