No. 4.] HEALTH ON THE FARM. 69 



the farm to health as one of peculiar significance, both in 

 regard to its importance and especially in the fact that it has 

 been neglected. 



The answer to the question, does farm life promote health 

 and prolong life, can be obtained solely from reliable data. It 

 is extremely difficult to secure reliable data representing all 

 parts of the country. The registration of vital statistics is 

 resented in many communities, and is difficult to enforce in 

 others where nominally it exists. If we look at a map of our 

 country which indicates the localities where registration of 

 vital statistics is required, we find that in 1880 Massachusetts 

 and New Jersey were the only States in which there was any 

 system of the registration of vital statistics at all. In 1890 

 the area included, in addition to Massachusetts and New 

 Jersey, all of the New England States except Maine, the whole 

 of New York and Delaware. In 1900 there had been a still 

 further extension of the registration system until it included, 

 in addition to the States named above, Indiana and Michigan. 

 In 1913, when the last map was published, we find a remark- 

 able increase in the registration area. In addition to the 

 States mentioned hitherto we have now included Pennsylvania, 

 Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, 

 Montana, Washington, Colorado, Utah and California. This 

 embraces almost one-third of the total area of the United 

 States and approximately two-thirds of its population. 



The total population of the registration area at the end of 

 the calendar year 1913 was 63,298,718, and the death rate of 

 the whole area was 14.1 per thousand. This rate, with the 

 exception of that for the preceding year, which was lower, 

 namely, 13.9 per thousand, is the lowest recorded since the 

 registration area was established. In 1880 the death rate, in 

 so far as it could be determined by reliable statistics, amounted 

 to 19.8 per thousand. It has since then gradually declined, 

 with occasional lapses, until the present time. Either the 

 introduction of the system of registration of vital statistics 

 has incited people to greater care of their health and lives, or 

 else the effects of the propaganda which has been made for 

 better sanitation and for pure food and drink and for better 

 control of contagious and epidemic diseases have contributed 



