146 



The Journal of Heredity 



of the ])rinted tallies makes it impossible 

 to put the hmit lower. The fecundity of 

 city women between 15 and 44 }-ears of 

 age is only about two-thirds that of 

 country women. But in the United 

 States cities are massed at the North, 

 and the North has a low fecundit},-. 

 The low urban fecundity, then, may be 

 due to the northern location and not to 

 city life. To test this, a comparison 

 has been made between the cities of the 

 North and the country districts of the 

 North, and between the cities of the 

 South and the country districts of the 

 South. Such a comparison indicates 

 that in all main divisions of the United 

 States fecundity in country districts 

 is greater than fecundity in cities It 

 indicates also that the difference be- 

 tween city and country in this respect 

 is at a minimum of about 10% in the 

 North Atlantic group and at a maxi- 

 mum in the southern groups where rural 

 fecundity is about double urban fecun- 

 dity. This geographic difference may 

 be plausibly explained as due to the 

 ntimerous immigrants in Northern cities 

 and their high fecundity, and to the 

 numerous Negroes in Southern cities 

 and their low fecundity. For the fecun- 

 dity of city Negroes is only about two- 

 thirds the fecundity of city whites, but 

 the fecundity of country Negroes is 

 much above that of country whites. 

 The growth of cities, especially in the 

 South, and of a Negro urban population 

 seems likely to increase the differences 

 in the fecundity of the two races. 



FECUNDITY OF IMMIGRANTS. 



The twenty-eighth \'(jlume of the 

 Report of the Immigration Commission, 

 printed in 1911, contains a contribution 

 to our subject, entitled, "Fecundity of 

 Immigrant Women," the main conclu- 

 sions of which have been summari^ced 

 by its author in an article in the last 

 issue of the Quarterly Publications of the 

 American Statistical Association." The 

 tables were com])iled from manuscri]:)! 

 data in the United States Census Bureau 

 and deal in the main with nearly SO, ()()() 

 married women under A5 years of age 



•Joseph A. Hill, "CoTiiiJarativc Fecundity 

 Am. Slat. Assn. (,)uart. J'lihs., XIII: ,^.S,^f.()4. 



lix'ing in the second decade of married 

 life and with the numl)er of children 

 they have had. 



This is the most imjjortant American 

 stud}' of fecundit}', and supplements in 

 many ways what we previously knew. 

 It classifies white wives as native of 

 native parents, native of foreign parents, 

 and foreign-born, and adds scanty data 

 about Negro wives. Of the Negro wives 

 who had been married between 10 and 

 20 years, one in five had had no child; 

 of the native white of native parents, 

 one in eight; of the native white of 

 foreign parents, one in 16; and of the 

 foreign-bom wives, one in 19. The 

 proportion of sterile marriages was 

 determined for the various nationality 

 classes of the foreign-born; it is highest 

 among wives bom in Scotland or Eng- 

 land; lowest among wives bom in 

 Poland, Bohemia or Russia; and the 

 proportion of sterile marriages among 

 those where the wife was bom in one of 

 the first mentioned countries is about 

 four times as great as among marriages 

 where the wife was bom in a country 

 belonging to the second group. Among 

 no group of foreign-born wives, however, 

 is the pro])ortion of sterile marriages 

 as great as among marriages where the 

 wives were born in the United States. 



With reference to the a\'cragc number 

 of children bom to these groups of wi\'es 

 of various countries of birth, the small- 

 est number is to wives of native Ameri- 

 can birth and parentage. Ten such 

 marriages have resulted in 27 children; 

 10 Negro marriages in 31 children; 10 

 marriages in whicli the wives were bom 

 in li^ngland, in M children; and at the 

 other extreme, 10 marriages with wi\-cs 

 born in Russia, in 54 children; 10 with 

 wives born in French Canada, in 56; 

 and 10 with wives born in Poland, in 62. 



The average interval of time elapsing 

 l)etween l^irths is for wives l)om in the 

 United vStates, 5.3 years; for wi\'es bom 

 in Poland, 2.3 years. This interval 

 between births is unifonnly greater in 

 the second generation of immigrants 

 than in the first. But the proportion 

 of sterile marriages docs not rise simi- 



)f \V')nu'ii of Native and Foreij^jn I'aivnlaj;e," in 



