IMMIGRATION AND FARM LABOR 109 



gone to the city, the hired man has gone to the city too, in ever 

 increasing numbers. 



H. E. Hoagland has described the movement of rural popula- 

 tion in Illinois. 5 According to this author the poverty of rural 

 social life has not been the cause of rural depopulation, since the 

 regions with a decrease in population are not found to be the ones 

 where the farmer's life is duller or more monotonous than those, 

 in which the rural population has increased. The exodus from 

 rural communities has been fully as active since the introduction 

 of rural free delivery, the telephone, and better roads as before. 

 The increased use of machinery, increase in the relative number 

 of horses, and in saving of time by use of the telephone and by 

 improving the roads have done much towards increasing the effi- 

 ciency of the farmers, so that it takes fewer of them to produce a 

 given quantity. 



City Labor for Farms. The question was put to Le Grand 

 Powers concerning placing the city man on the farm. He saw 

 little hope of success here, since it takes time to learn the business 

 of farming. 



Immigration and Farm Labor. The "old" immigration from 

 the British Isles and Northwest Europe settled very largely on 

 the land. The "new" immigration does not do so. "After their 

 arrival in the United States," says the Federal government, "these 

 immigrants (Italians, Slavs, Hungarians) do not seek employment 

 in agriculture, partly because of the difficulties in the way of secur- 

 ing it, but mainly because of the higher rates of wages in other 

 industries. In transportation, manufacturing, mining, and in 

 building, the demand for common labor has been very great." 6 



Colonies of the older immigrants are so common in all parts 

 of the United States as to excite no comment whatever. The 

 English speaking immigrants Irish, Scotch, English, Canadian, 

 are soon Americanized and absorbed. Bohemians, Germans, and 

 Scandinavians in rural colonies slowly but surely become Ameri- 

 canized. According to Le Grand Powers, the Germans seek to 

 maintain their language, especially when they are settled under 

 semi-religious auspices. This is doubtless true of the others, yet 

 the foreign language rarely survives a second generation. 



Professor Cance of the Massachusetts Agricultural College 

 has made a very extensive investigation of immigrant rural com- 

 munities, particularly of the Americanization and assimilation 



5 Journal of Political Economy. Vol. 20, pp. 913-927. 



6 Labor Bulletin, No. 72, p. 406, September, 1907. 



