The Census as an Accurate Source of Information: The Value of Mid-Nineteenth Century Manufacturing Returns

Every census of the United States contains numerous errors, as many in the population returns as elsewhere, but on this account it has never been concluded that these returns are useless. In the absence of better data they afford an approximation of good value and the results they exhibit are treated as matters of verity. Such in their aggregate they are, while in many of their details they may be grossly defective.