28 BULLETIN 1295, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
either of the other two classes. They are more thrifty, more familiar 
with a self-sufficing way of living, and more familiar with the in- 
tensive hand type of agriculture needed in the first few years. They 
are more willing to leave home to work out and earn the money 
needed to feed and cloth their families and to make payments on their 
contracts. However, there are among them many who have been in 
this country so long that their ideals and standards of living are es- 
sentially American, especially if they have been living in cities, and 
it seemed to be particularly this class of foreign born that some of 
the companies have attracted. 
A few companies have pronounced scruples against selling to for- 
eigners. One reason assigned is that an all-foreign community 
frequently does not progress so rapidly in the long run. Another 
is that Americans will not buy in a community where foreigners 
predominate. For this reason, several companies have tried to keep 
their settlers well mixed as to nationality and origin. It is not hard 
to do this if the advertising is all in English newspapers. 
_ Thesummary of survey material for the 15 land-settlement projects 
which were included in Table 10 shows that of a total of 583 settlers 
surveyed, 313 were born in foreign countries. Only 174 of the 583 
were engaged in farming at the time they became settlers; all the 
others were in occupations that may be regarded as urban in char- 
acter, with a possible exception of 50 engaged in mining. All but 69 
of them, however, reported some farm experience at one time or 
other. Of the remainder 1,132 reported that they had had experience 
as owner-farmers, 88 that they had had experience as tenants, and 94 
that they had had experience as laborers. In addition, 187 reported 
having been born and reared on farms. Without doubt, in most cases 
some knowledge of farming was derived from this experience, but 
much of it was on peasant farms in Europe. This is also true of a 
considerable number of those having had experience as farm laborers. 
This European experience may not be of great advantage on cut-over 
land in the Lakes States. Of 278 cases reporting the number of years 
they had been engaged in farm work, 157 had 5 years or less experi- 
ence; 50 had from 6 to 10 years; 34 from 11 to 15 years; and 37 over 
15 years. The conclusion drawn from this analysis is that enter- 
prises included in these surveys followed, fairly consistently, the 
policy of selecting persons who had lived on farms some time in 
their lives. 
When the statistics obtained from the surveys are analyzed accord- 
ing to the foregoing classes, it appears that the foreign-born settlers 
started settlement with a beginning net worth of $1,247 as com- 
pared with an average of $1,197 for the native born. Those who 
came direct from the occupation of farming (comprising both native 
born and foreign born) had an average net worth of $1,764, whereas 
those who came from other occupations had an average net worth 
of only $991. The average for all classes of settlers was about $1,100. 
The farmers’ sons, tenants, and farmers usually brought from $1,000 
to $3,000 worth of cash and property, although many of them had 
practically nothing. Great numbers of those who came from cities 
had only a few hundred dollars. Many of them had a city home to 
sell or trade in. The American born were likely to have even less 
than the foreign born; it is more often lack of thrift than anything 
