GEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA 245 



Mississippi were the only states east of the Mississippi River not 

 represented. On the east coast the proportions are doubtless some- 

 what different, there being very likely more New Yorkers and New 

 Englanders there. 



Central Florida is not lacking in summer resorts also, such as 

 Daytona, Pass-a-Grille, Cedar Keys, Silver Springs, Clay Springs, 

 and Orange Springs, but no statistics of their patronage are avail- 

 able at this writing. 



ILLITERACY 



A crude measure of the educational equipment of the people is 

 afforded by the statistics of illiteracy, which have been given by 

 every United States census since 1840, but are not considered very 

 trustworthy until recent decades. If the whole population, or any 

 race or national or age group, could be graded according to edu- 

 cation, or the number of years of schooling each individual has 

 had, a curve could be constructed from the results, and this curve 

 would always be steepest in its higher parts (like those for school 

 population and size of farms given farther on), for in every city, 

 county, state or country there are always more persons below than 

 above the average in education (as in age, wealth, etc.). just as 

 tliere are more towns than cities, more gnats than camels, more 

 herbs than trees in the forests, more creeks than rivers, and more 

 hills than mountains. The illiteracy count gives only one point on 

 such a curve, and that usually near the bottom, among white people 

 in civilized communities at least, but it is much better than no in- 

 formation at all on the subject. 



The illiteracy percentage has been determined in different coun- 

 tries for adults, voters, army recruits, bridal couples, etc., but in 

 this country the usual method is to ask of each person who has 

 reached the age of ten years whether or not he can read and write. 

 Formerly this was asked only of adults, but the 19 10 census gives 

 the data both for adult males and for all persons over 10, subdi- 

 viding each group according to race and nativity. 



Some comparisons between the urban and rural population 

 with respect to illiteracy have already been given in Table 22. 

 Table 24 gives for each region, the whole area and the whole State 

 the illiteracy percentages for adult males in 19 10 and for all per- 

 sons over 10 at three different census periods, subdividing them by 



