THE 1850 CENSUS OF AGRICULTURE
WAYNE COUNTY, TENNESSEE
By Gerald K. Moore
©2002 Gerald K. Moore - All Rights Reserved
Used With Permission
Introduction
In 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880, a separate census of agriculture was made at the same time as the census of population, and the farm records are available on microfilm. The agriculture census of 1850 is interesting because this was the
A golden age of home-spun.@ Things in the stores were expensive, and most families were as self sufficient as possible. They clipped their own wool and milked their own cows to make butter, for example. A large majority of Wayne County farmers grew corn and oats that were fed to livestock, and the sale of salted (cured) meat and live animals produced most farm income. Other income came from the sale of surplus crops and home manufactures. The markets included town and city dwellers, plantations in nearby counties, and shops or industries that fed their employees. Most crops and manufactures were used or sold locally, but export sales were needed to pay for imports like sheet metal (for tinsmiths), wrought iron (for blacksmiths), cookware, gunpowder, tea, sugar, salt, and pepper.The main shipping points, to which goods were carried by wagon, were Carrollsville (Clifton) and Columbia. Steamboat shipments in 1860-70 included pig iron, tanned leather, cotton, wheat, dried fruit, and feathers; freight charges from Clifton to New Orleans were about $0.02/lb. In 1850, the exports from Wayne County, as shown by relatively large quantities in the census of agriculture, likely included cured meat, butter, honey, beeswax, tobacco, cotton, and wool. Also, some corn might have been shipped in the form of whiskey.
A few numbers in the 1850 census of agriculture are incorrect, and a few names are different in the farm census and the population census for the same year. It was common practice in the 1800
= s for a census taker to make a clean copy of his records, to keep the original, and to mail his copy to the county. County officials then made one or more copies to send to the state, where at least one more copy was made and sent to the U.S. Census Bureau. Some errors seem to have occurred when one person read the names of land owners aloud and other people wrote down what they heard. Other errors apparently resulted from entering numbers in the wrong lines and columns. Today, poor handwriting and microfilm pages that are barely visible cause other problems in data transcription. The discrepancies include, for example, the following names:| Population census | Farm census |
| Bogerges | Rogers |
| Brewer | Barlow |
| Briggs | Burgess |
| Christen | Christy |
| Cinham | Benham |
| Gedalin | Sabler |
| Harland | Harlow |
| Jones | James |
| Milton | Helton |
| Scott | Staggs |
| Tunley | Turley |
In addition, a few names in the census of agriculture are not in the population census, and different spellings of the same family name are common. The effect of the errors is that the names, amounts, and values for individual farms are not completely reliable. Nevertheless, statistical analyses show that these problems have little if any effect on the averages.
In the data for the census of agriculture, there are significantly more values in the lower half of the range for each category than in the upper half, and a few numbers are very large. In technical terms, the data are log-normally distributed. For practical purposes, this simply means that the middle or median value is a more representative average value than is the mean and that unusually large numbers are not representative of most farms in the county.
UNDERSTANDING THE DATA
The agricultural census of 1850 was intended to record the farms that produced more than $100 of meat and home manufactures, but the census taker included many farms with less production. The farm data were recorded in 46 separate categories on two pages. Columns for farm operator (col. 1) to wool production (col. 21) appeared on the first page, and columns for the production of field peas and beans (col. 22) to the value of slaughtered animals (col. 46) appeared on the second. There was no production of some crops; these columns have been omitted from the records. One additional column, the total value of real estate, was copied from the population census of 1860; it follows the column showing farm value and should have the same numbers; differences indicate an error in one census record or the other. Another, final column of comments shows the civil district, the date of the census, and the production of a few minor crops. Column numbers and data explanations are as follows:
|
Original Column No. |
Column Heading |
Note |
| 1 | Owner Name of owner, agent, or manager of farm |
The listed name is usually the same as the head of family in the population census. The index following the data includes all names in col. 1. |
| 2 | Acres Improved Area of cleared land | |
| 3 | Acres Other Area of unimproved or forested land | |
| 4 | Land Value $ Cash value of farm in dollars | None $ Real Estate Value from the population census |
| 5 | $ Farm Machinery Value of farming implements and machinery | |
|
Farm value apparently includes the value of the land, housing, and all other buildings. The value of farm machinery may include household tools, including the value of spinning wheels, looms, carpentry and blacksmithing tools, and butchering equipment. |
||
| 6 | No. of Horses Working animals | |
| 7 | No. of Mules Working animals | |
| 8 | No. of Cows Milch (milk) cows | |
| 9 | No. of Oxen Working animals | |
| 10 | No. Cattle Other cattle | |
| 11 | No. Sheep All adult sheep | |
| 12 | No. Swine All adult hogs | |
| The census taker was instructed to count all animals more than 1 year old. . | ||
| 13 | $ Livestock Cash value of all livestock | |
| 14 | Bu. Wheat Crop production, in bushels | |
| 15 | Bu. Rye Crop production | |
| 16 | Bu. Corn Crop production | |
| 17 | Bu. Oats Crop production | |
| 18 | Bu. of Rice; no data | col. omitted |
| 19 | lb. Tobacco Crop production | |
| 20 | bales Cotton Ginned cotton | number of 400-lb. bales |
| 21 | lb. Wool | Weight before washing |
| 22 | Bu. Peas Harvest of field peas and beans | |
| 23 | Bu. Irish Potatoes | Production of Irish potatoes |
| 24 | Bu. Swt. Pots. | Production of sweet potatoes |
| 25 | Bu. Barley | no data; col. omitted |
| 26 | Bu. Buckwheat |
no data; col. omitted |
| 27 | Value of orchard products | no data; col. omitted |
| 28 | Gal of wine | no data; col. omitted |
| 29 | Value of market garden products | no data; col. omitted |
| 30 | lb. Butter Farm production | |
| 31 | lb. Cheese Farm production | |
| 32 | Tons of hay | two producers (see comments for farms X1 and X3); col. omitted. |
| 33 | Bu. of clover seed | no data; col. omitted |
| 34 | Bu. of grass seed | no data; col. omitted |
| 35 | lb. of hops | no data; col. omitted |
| 36 | Tons of dew rotted hemp | no data; col. omitted |
| 37 | Tons of water rotted hemp | no data; col. omitted |
| 38 | lb. of flax | six producers (see comments for farms A7, A19, A25, F3, I36, and L16); col. omitted |
| 39 | Bu of flax seed | one producer (see comment for farm A25); col. omitted |
| 40 | lb. of silk cocoons | no data; col. omitted |
| 41 | lb. of maple sugar | seven producers (see comments for farms A28, I17, I18, L4, L28, M4, and M28); col. omitted |
| 42 | Hundred thousand lb. of cane sugar | no data; col. omitted |
| 43 | Gal of molasses | no data; col. omitted |
| 44 | lb. Wax & Honey Combined production | |
| 45 | $ Homemade Items Value of homemade manufactures | |
| 46 | $ Slaughtered Value of slaughtered animals | |
| 47 | Comments Location and date; other notes | |