The following pages contain the condensed results of the Tenth Census of the United States, taken as of date June 1, 1880, under authority of the acts approved March 3, 1879, and April 20, 1880, which will be found appended (pages xvii-xxv).

By this act the scope of the census was greatly enlarged, and its machinery was changed in several marked particulars from that provided by the act of May 23, 1850, under which the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Censuses were necessarily taken. The scope of these changes, and the result of the application of the new methods, will be found in the reports of the Superintendent of the Census for the years 1879 to 1882, the substantive parts of which are appended as constituting the history of the Tenth Census. It will not surprise the reader, that in the prosecution of a work of this magnitute, more than one disappointment should have been experienced as to both the time and the money required for its successful completion.

Except only as to churches, libraries, and private schools, the statistics of which have been delayed in compilation, the tables embraced in this publication touch all the general classes of statistics which will be embracedi n the much more extended publication of the series of quarto volumes authorized by act of the present Congress. These quarto volumes will, however, contain a vast amount of more local, more detailed, or more technical information of a predominantly statistical character, for which room could not be found in the present publication.