History

Agriculture

The United States has collected data on the nation's agriculture since U.S. marshals inquired about families' agricultural pursuits in 1820.

Over the next 190 years, the census of agriculture grew to reflect changes in American agriculture, including types and uses of machinery, irrigation, and fertilizer. The census of agriculture also incorporated changes and innovations pioneered by other censuses, including the use of electronic tabulation in 1900, statistical sampling in the 1940s, and the collection of Hispanic-origin data beginning in 1978.