126 THE TREND OF THE RACE 
Canadian element (50 per cent of the foreign born) tends to raise 
the birth rate of the foreign born population. In their report on 
infant mortality in Manchester, N. H., in 1914, Duncan and 
Duke state that, “although foreign born constitute only about 
42 per cent of the total population, foreign born mothers give 
birth to 67 per cent of the 1,643 infants.” In New York City, 
according to the report of the New York Department of Health 
for 1909, the birth rate per thousand of native born women is 
28.26, while for an equal number of foreign born women it is 
109.46, or nearly four times as large. 
Hoffmann finds from a study of a number of genealogies of 
American families, that the average number of children per family 
sank from nearly 7 in the 18th century to nearly 5 in the first half 
of the 19th century, and further decreased to less than 3 in the 
latter part of the r9th century. The studies of Crum have yielded 
additional evidence of much the same character. A study was 
made of the genealogical records of 22 American families contain- 
ing 12,722 wives and 61,115 children. The chief results are sum- 
marized in the following table: 
The Decreasing Size of American Families 
Before : 
too \1700-49|1750-99 1800—49|1850-69|1870-79 
No. of children per wife.......| 7.37 | 6.83 | 6.43 | 4.04 | 3.47 2 7 
Percentage of childless wives. .| 1.81 1.74 | 1.88 | 4.07 | 5.91 8.10 
Mothers with 6-9 children... ./50.36%|42.89%|40.50%|29.17%|15.71 | 8.57 
Mothers with only 1 child.....] 1.81%] 4.11%] 4.98%] 7.96%|13.98%| 18% 
Average age of marriage...... 21.4 |21.7 ~ |22. 22.3 |22.9 = |23.1 
The families whose records are included in published gene- 
alogies represent the older American stock which may be repro- 
ducing more slowly than that of more recent native Americans. 
Benjamin Franklin estimated the average number of children in 
an American family in the 18th century at 7, and from the study 
of a number of genealogies I have arrived at approximately the 
same result. 
