though even there hardly more than approximately, little work of much
real value being accomplished till the formation of the labor bureaus,
with which we are soon to deal. Every allowance, however, is to be made
for the Census Bureau, which found itself almost incapable of overcoming
many of the lions in the way. The tone of the remarks on this point in
that for 1860 is almost plaintive, nor is it less so in the next; but
methods have clarified, and the work is far more authoritative than for
long seemed possible.

Innumerable difficulties hedged about the enumerators for 1860. Rooted
objection to answering the questions in detail was not one of the least.
Unfamiliarity with the newer phases of the work was another, and thus
it happened that the volume when issued was full of discrepancies. The
tables of occupations, for example, characterized but a little over two
thousand persons as connected with woollen and worsted manufacture;
while the tables of manufactures showed that considerably more than
forty thousand persons were engaged, upon the average, in these branches
of manufacturing industry.

The returns gave the number of women employed in various branches of
manufacture as two hundred and eighty-five thousand, but stated that the
figures were approximate merely, it being impossible to secure full
returns. It was found that three and a half per cent of the population
of Massachusetts were in the factories, and nearly the same proportion
in Connecticut and Rhode Island; but details were of the most meagre
description, and conclusions based upon them were likely to err at every
point. Its value was chiefly educative, since the failure it represents
pointed to a change in methods, and more preparation than had at any
time been considered necessary in the officials who had the matter in
charge.