creasing prosperity. To-day the soil of this section is more than ordin- 

 arily fertile, and the farmers are more than ordinarily prosperous, 

 results brought about by 60 years of superior farming. No other sec- 

 tion of this county and few farming sections anywhere show to a more 

 marked degree the evidences of a substantial prosperity, fine homes, 

 excellent farm buildings, well-kept farms, strong banks, and a strong 

 school and church meeting the needs of rural life. 



In 1900, the white population of the Sandy Spring neighborhood was 

 estimated at about 700, and the colored population at about 1,000. 

 It is unlikely that there has been much change since that time. The 

 white population has been exceedingly stable. Not all the people living 

 within the limits of the neighborhood belong, strictly speaking, to the 

 community. But of those who are members of the Sandy Spring 

 social group, at least 90% are of the famihes of "old residents." These 

 families are practically all inter-related. 



We have said that the community has always been predominantly 

 under the influence of the Society of Friends, and this still holds true. 

 Within recent years, some of other faiths have been received as mem- 

 bers of the group, but they are also for the most part old residents. 

 During the summer there is always an influx of people from near-by 

 cities, whose annual coming has wrought social changes of some im- 

 portance. But in general we may say that we are here concerned 

 with a group very highly homogeneous. The distinctive Friend's dress 

 has been abandoned, and among the younger generation the distinctive 

 speech is to some extent being dropped. 



This is a population whose main characteristics are remarkably per- 

 manent and who have attained a rare sort of social solidarity which 

 permits them to retain the institutions of the past while still making 

 room for the best that the present has to offer. They cling tenaciously 

 to many of their old traditions; societies and customs are very often 

 much longer lived than are the individuals who father them; yet no 

 community has been readier to adopt improved methods of agriculture 

 or more active in the support of reform and progress along all lines. 

 We have, moreover, a highly cultured group, strong in its advocacy of 

 good schools and thorough education. Illiteracy is altogether absent 

 here, while indolence and shiftlessness are practically so. It would 

 doubtless be easy to show that this uniformly high cultural level is 

 fundamentally responsible for the high degree of prosperity which the 

 community has been able to maintain. 



The usual rural-community problem of holding the young people 

 has been a more or less vital issue here. During the last 50 years 75 or 

 80 young men have gone out into business in various parts of the world. 

 The farms have been divided a^ much as is economically desirable, and 



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