76 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



the place of one of the best examples of administrative repub- 

 lican government in existence, and it will l)e a source of no 

 small degree of shame to us if the Hawaiians have cause to 

 regret the change of events which brought them into the 

 sovereignty of the United States. 



It is too soon to give the final results of the twelfth census 

 relative to immigration, birth rate and other vital statistics 

 concerning the population. From the annual reports, how- 

 ever, of immigration, it is possible to know very closely the 

 rate of immigration from year to year, and the sections of 

 the country whither the streams of incoming foreigners flow. 

 The graphical representation which I show you conveys in a 

 moment's study what a large collection of figures would show 

 less distinctly. It gives the result from year to year of im- 

 migration into the United States since 1820, starting from 

 about 38,000 at the first period, reaching a maximum in 1882 

 of nearly 800,000, and showing a fairly regular diminution 

 since. At the present time, again, immigration seems to be 

 increasing, and during the present year will amount to some- 

 thing over 420,000. The total immigration since 1820, by 

 races, is shown on the chart next following. The Germans 

 have furnished our greatest source of supply, over 5,000,000 

 having entered tlie country since 1820. Next in order are 

 the Irish, British, Scandinavians, Austro-Hungarians and 

 Italians. Their respective immigration, however, can be seen 

 better from the diagram itself than from any description. 



How great a change has taken place in the last thirty years 

 in the character of this immigration will be evident from a 

 study of the next diagram. It shows, in brief, that the per- 

 centage of immigration from Great Britain, Ireland and 

 Scandinavia has steadily diminished during the last fifteen 

 years. The immigration of Russians has on the whole re- 

 mained constant, while the Italians have been coming in 

 vastly greater numbers, and now form a very large propor- 

 tion of the total immigration ; and that, whereas fifteen years 

 ago over 50 per cent of the total immigration came from 

 Great Britain, Germany and Scandinavia, to-day those coun- 

 tries furnish only about 43 per cent of the total immigration." 

 The distribution of this foreign population among the sepa- 

 rate States is shown in the next diairram, in which the States 



