ents for any particular neighborhood somewhat less than 70%. Of 

 the new-comers, in the farming sections, a very small proportion are of 

 foreign birth, the greater part being from Pennsylvania, Virginia and the 

 neighboring Maryland counties. 



As far as the white population is concerned, we are here dealing 

 with the best American stock. Throughout the county an unusually 

 high level of culture and education is maintained. In this respect, the 

 farms are as interesting as the towns. An astonishingly large propor- 

 tion of the farmers, especially in the Laytonsville and Olney Districts, 

 have had the benefit of a college education or have achieved its equival- 

 ent in general culture. This fact was borne in upon the investigators' 

 minds by their first experience with a Farmers' Club in the county. 

 They attended a meeting of this club with the preconceived notion that 

 "rural" meant good citizenship, high character and sterling worth, 

 but hardly broad education and general culture. They came away 

 knowing that it meant all of that and more, and realizing that the only 

 safe plan when attending similar meetings in the future would be to 

 have a care that their trousers were pressed and their shoes blacked, 

 their minds clear and their English correct, and their general deportment 

 above reproach. In the Districts mentioned, and elsewhere to a con- 

 siderable extent, traditions of education have been long maintained. 

 In other districts, particularly in the upper end of the county, the pres- 

 ent generation hasn't had the advantage of educated grandfathers, 

 but here within 30 years, very substantial progress along these lines has 

 been made. At present, there are very few illiterates among the white 

 population of the county. 



As regards industry, the conditions aie quite as favorable. The 

 great proportion of the whites are regularly industrious. One district 

 reported an old practise of "white-capping" the idle. In general, 

 however, there has been little necessity for coercion in this direction. 

 To be sure, there are circles in which industry does not mean the long 

 hours and unceasingly hard labor that usually characterize farm life. 

 For example, in the Laytonsville District, a proportion of the farm- 

 owners represent what we may describe as "The Old South," and among 

 them the word "industry" must be liberally interpreted. These men 

 are good farmers, but do not themselves do much of the hard work, 

 and in consequence they are not making the progress economically that 

 many of their thriftier neighbors are making. 



Among the negroes, the conditions are not so favorable. The exact 

 facts were exceedingly difficult to get at. Probably at least two-thirds 

 of the adults are illiterate and a considerable proportion more or less 

 regularly indolent. (In the Sandy Spring neighborhood, a bulletin 

 of the Department of Labor, 1899, reported 70% of the negroes as able 



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