122 



cities are unique in the region in having a population greater than 5,000 ; 

 but they soon will be joined by Jenkins and Hazard, about which coal 

 mining is developing rapidly. In 1910 less than one-half of one per cent, 

 of the total population was foreign born. These people were chiefly 

 skilled miners from England, Sweden, Germany, and Switzerland, who 

 drifted in by way of Pennsylvania. In seven counties there were no farm- 

 ers of foreign birth ; and in only one county did the foreign born exceed 

 21. Recently, Southern Europeans have begun to come, particularly Ital- 

 ians and Hungarians. By 1920 tbe number of foreign born will have 

 increased greatly. In 1900 about two per ceut. of the population were 

 negro, and in 1910 two and one-half per cent. In three counties there were 

 no negroes ; and in sixteen, less than twenty. 



The problem presented in the region by the rapid increase in popula- 

 tion with no corresponding increase in foodstuffs, probably is not greatly 

 overdrawn in tbe following statements by a mountain graduate of Berea 

 College: "The pioneer of 1850 who sat in his front door watching the 

 deer rove the unbroken forest, today sitting in the same place can see 

 acres of spoiled farm land. A few years ago the people produced enough 

 on their farms to support themselves. Today one-half of the food con- 

 sumed is brought in by the merchants. Twenty-five years ago our hill- 

 sides produced forty bushels of corn per acre. Today the average yield of 

 corn per acre is a little less than twenty-five bushels. (In 1909 it was 

 18.7.) The independent farmer of yesterday has been transformed in the 

 last few years to a man dependent upon his staves and ties for support. 

 Now, his farm has grown up in bushes, and his timber is almost exhausted. 

 . . . . Such is the condition of a vast number of our mountain farmers." 



There is an emigration of the mountain families, or of sons and 

 daughters, particularly from the marginal counties, where a fringe of 

 mountain territory has been put in touch with outside progress and human- 

 ity, and where mountain peoples are buying adjacent lowlands. Some are 

 moving to Oklahoma and the Far West. This in part accounts? for a 

 decrease in population of five counties. 



Public health is not as good as might be expected at first thought. The 

 situation has been summarized by Miss Verhoeff (in "The Kentucky Moun- 

 tains") as follows: "Endurance and muscular strength are common, but 

 a strong constitution is exceptional. Bad housing and sanitation, ill-cooked 

 and insufficient food, exposure to weather, and .... poverty, have 



