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cities are unique in the region in having a population greater than 5,000; 
but they soon will be joined by Jenkins and Hazard, about which coal 
mining is developing rapidly. In 1910 less than one-half of one per cent. 
of the total population was foreign born. These people were chiefly 
skilled miners from England, Sweden, Germany, and Switzerland, who 
drifted in by way of Pennsylvania. In seven counties there were no farm- 
ers of foreign birth; and in only one county did the foreign born exceed 
21. Recently, Southern Europeans have begun to come, particularly Ital- 
jans and Hungarians. By 1920 the number of foreign born will have 
increased greatly. In 1900 about two per cent. of the population were 
negro, and in 1910 two and one-half per cent. In three counties there were 
no negroes; and in sixteen, less than twenty. 
The problem presented in the region by the rapid increase in popula- 
tion with no corresponding increase in foodstuffs, probably is not greatly 
overdrawn in the following statements by a mountain graduate of Berea 
College: ‘The pioneer of 1850 who sat in his front door watching the 
deer rove the unbroken forest, today sitting in the same place can see 
acres of spoiled farm land. A few years ago the people produced enough 
on their farms to support themselves. Today one-half of the food con- 
sumed is brought in by the merchants. Twenty-five years ago our hill- 
sides produced forty bushels of corn per acre. Today the average yield of 
corn per acre is a little less than twenty-five bushels. (In 1909 it was 
18.7.). The independent farmer of yesterday has been transformed in the 
last few years to a man dependent upon his staves and ties for support. 
Now, his farm has grown up in bushes, and his timber is almost exhausted. 
Such is the condition of a vast number of our mountain farmers.” 
There is an emigration of the mountain families, or of sons and 
daughters, particularly from the marginal counties, where a fringe of 
mountain territory has been put in touch with outside progress and human- 
ity, and where mountain peoples are buying adjacent lowlands. Some are 
moving to Oklahoma and the Far West. This in part accounts for a 
decrease in population of five counties. 
Public health is not as good as might be expected at first thought. The 
situation has been summarized by Miss Verhoeff (in “The Kentucky Moun- 
tains”) as follows: “HEndurance and muscular strength are common, but 
a strong constitution is exceptional. Bad housing and sanitation, ill-cooked 
and insufficient food, exposure to weather, and . . . . poverty, have 
