As is indicated by this table, the number of farms embraced within the study was 856. Of these 490, or more than one-half, were conducted by Japanese, 147 by Scandinavians and Germans, 115 by Italians, 56 by Portuguese, 31 by German-Russians, and 17 by Armenians. Fifteen of the 856 farms were in northern Utah (all Japanese), 73 in Colorado (Japanese, German-Russian, and South Italian), 27 in northwestern Oregon (Japanese and Italian), 97 about Tacoma and Seattle, Wash. (Japanese, Italian, Scandinavian, and German), and 644 in California. The total acreage, together with the acreage under each form of tenure, of the farms included in the investigation is shown, by race of farmer, in the table following. a Not including 1 farm consisting of 10 lots. • Not including 4 farms (3 greenhouses, 5 lots, 4 lots, 2 lots). In the selection of communities for investigation, preference was usually given to those in which two or more foreign-born races are found, rather than to interesting small colonies, for it was desired to obtain as much comparative data as possible. Of necessity, much of the study was of a descriptive and historical character, but an effort was made to select an adequate number of representative farmers for the purpose of illustration, and detailed personal and farm schedules were obtained from them. The character of these schedules is shown elsewhere. The data obtained are presented in 19 local reports, one for each of the localities noted in Table 2 (see page 288). Because of the comparatively small number of schedules which could be collected, the statistical data should be considered as merely indicative and not as having any degree of finality with reference to the subjects upon which they bear. Moreover, it will be found that generally the more important facts taken from each schedule, printed in a general table at the beginning of the appendix in which the tables are presented at the end of the volume, will give a more accurate idea of the situation than the more detailed tables, in which the schedules lose their identity. In this introductory chapter a general survey of the facts relating to immigrant farming and a comparison of the data of a sociological and political nature are made. • See Abstracts of Reports of the Immigration Commission, Vol. II. (S. Doc. No. 747, 61st Cong., 3d sess.) THE GERMAN AND THE SCANDINAVIAN FARMERS. The north European immigrant farmers have in many instances engaged in business or in industry in the West, and then after accumulating some capital have taken up government land or have purchased farms. A large number have moved from the Central States, along with a large number of natives of native parentage, to acquire new homes in the West. A large percentage of those who have migrated had been engaged in farming in other States, but joined the westward movement in a search for new or cheaper lands or a better climate or to join friends. This is especially true of the Scandinavians, who, in recent years, have moved in large numbers from the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin to Washington and Oregon, or, to a less extent, to other States of the Western Division. Here and there the Germans (as about Anaheim, Cal.), the Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes (as about Templeton and Union, Cal., and in several localities in Oregon and Washington), are colonized to such a degree that the communities are distinctly German, or Swedish, or Norwegian, or Danish, as the case may be. Instances of anything approaching a real colonization, in which they constitute a majority, are very exceptional, however, and are almost universally connected with a colonization scheme which has been adopted for disposing of large tracts of land to persons of a given race in eastern communities. As a rule, the members of these races are well Americanized before they become farmers in the West, secure farms scattered throughout the community, engage in very much the same kinds of farming as the natives, have farms of similar sizes, houses and other improvements of the same character, and present no striking contrast to farmers of other races about them. The only differences worth the while to note are the strong tendency of the Danes to engage in dairy farming, and the greater thrift and the better husbandry which the foreign-born of these races, on the whole, show as compared to the farmers of native stock. Most of them have acquired their farms and improved them, and therefore evince unusual interest in up-to-date agricultural methods. Of the foreign-born Scandinavian and German farmers investigated, the great majority had immigrated independently as young men or as minors with their parents who were seeking a new home. It would appear that something more than one-half came from the agricultural classes of their native countries, but that the percentage who had been wage-earners in industry was large, possibly one-third of the number (General Table 60), It is interesting to note also that approximately one-half found their first employment in this country as farm laborers. This is explained chiefly by the facts that for many years the German and Scandinavian agricultural element has been large in this country, that further immigration is induced from among their acquaintances by their prosperity, and that the new immigrants frequently go to live with and work for immigrant farmers, who usually employ as regular farm laborers persons of their own a Most of the tables accompanying the text are not inserted in the text, but This rule has been folare arranged in serial order at the end of the volume, and reference is made to them by numbers placed in parentheses, as in this case. lowed in all of the reports on farmers in different localities. race. Few, it seems, begin farming for themselves as their first occupation in this country, for they come, as a rule, as young men and with little or no capital (General Tables 59 and 60). In fact, only a small minority, possibly one-fourth, have been able to establish themselves as farmers within five or seven years of their arrival in this country. Unlike the Italians and Japanese, they are individualistic; they seldom form partnerships which would enable those who had recently arrived to establish themselves upon the land within a comparatively short time. Moreover, they have not been conspicuous in the organized labor supply engaged in seasonal agricultural work, so that they have not been settled upon the land as laborers or tenants, as have the German-Russians and Japanese. In fact, the Germans and Scandinavians have not, as a rule, begun farming as tenants, but have waited until such time as they were able from their earnings as laborers or in business to save sufficient capital to constitute a first payment or a payment in full upon land purchased for a farm. The land acquired by the north Europeans has usually been "raw land," or, in localities in which intensive farming was being introduced, land which had not been used for intensive farming, for, like the native element in the population, they have turned in greatest numbers to localities where land was cheap. Acquiring land under these circumstances, these races have contributed greatly to the material development of the communities in which they have settled. Moreover, they have, as a rule, profited greatly by the general advance of these communities, for this advance has usually added greatly to the value of the land they have owned. The German and Scandinavian farmers, while maintaining a high standard of living, have made rapid progress in the accumulation of wealth. In all of the communities investigated they were found to have been able, as a general rule, to pay off the indebtedness incurred when they purchased their farms, so that the great majority are without mortgages upon their farms. Most of their investments have been upon the farms originally purchased and in new tracts later acquired. As a result of their general prosperity, good management, thrift, and the advance of the communities in which they have settled, the great majority of those who have been engaged in farming more than a few years are comfortably well off, while a large percentage have succeeded in acquiring more wealth than is required to enable them to earn a "good living." While 9 of 144 German and Scandinavian farmers reporting estimated the value of their property, minus indebtedness, at less than $1,000, and 8 at $1,000 but less than $2,500, 26 estimated their possessions at $2,500, but less than $5.000; 46 at $5,000, but less than $10.000; 42 at $10,000, but less than $25,000; and 13 at $25,000 or over (General Table 62). Eleven of the 147 owned no land. Most of the property of the others was in the form of land and improvements. While 9 of the 134 reporting the value owned real estate worth less than $2,500, the holdings of 30 were valued at $2,500, but less than $5,000; of 49 at $5,000, but less than $10,000; of 34 at $10,000, but less than $25,000; and of 12 at $25,000 or over (General Table 61). While the number of these farmers studied is small, they were selected as representative of their races in the few localities from which data were obtained, and indicate fairly well the position occupied by them as farmers except in the most recently settled communities. THE PORTUGUESE FARMERS. The Portuguese have immigrated to only a few sections of the United States, among those being California, which, in 1900, reported 12,068 of the total of 30,632 in the continental territory. Portuguese from the Azores have been immigrating to California in small numbers for more than fifty years. The first settlers were largely of the sailor class. Later these were followed by farmers immigrating directly from the Azores and by still others coming to the mainland from the Hawaiian Islands, where at different times a large number have been induced to go for work on the sugar plantations. Still others in comparatively recent years have moved West from settlements in Eastern States to join friends or to find a climate less unlike that to which they were accustomed at home or better opportunities for farming. With few exceptions the Portuguese who have immigrated to this country have been of the agricultural class. Though some of the newer arrivals have worked as common laborers and a comparatively large number have been employed as stevedores, deck hands on the "river boats," and in similar capacities, the Portuguese have engaged chiefly in agricultural pursuits, usually as laborers for their countrymen to begin with, then as tenant, and then as landowning farmers. The Portuguese farmers have tended to colonize in certain localities, and the great majority are located in central California, from Fresno north to Sacramento. Most of them are within a hundred miles of San Francisco. A large number are engaged in dairy farming, and many are engaged in growing potatoes and the coarser vegetables. Such interests are usually combined, however, with general farming. Though of an agricultural class and though they frequently have been employed as farm laborers, it has usually taken them several years to establish themselves as farmers. They are extremely individualistic and partnerships are seldom found among them, so they have not had the advantages of cooperative effort, as have the Italians. Many of them have at first leased farms, while perhaps onehalf, settling in the communities where the price of land was not so high as to require much capital in order to purchase a holding, have purchased farms to begin with. Most of the tenant farmers by industry and the practice of thrift, frequently at the cost of a fair standard of living and the schooling of their children, have soon been able to purchase land. Few who have been farming more than ten years are tenant farmers, unless they add under lease more land to that which they own in order to farm on a larger scale. Their savings are usually invested in more land, their desire for which is so strong that, in spite of the fact that they are close bargainers, they frequently pay higher prices than natives will offer. They can afford to do this, for they are excellent farmers. Frequently while improving their lands, as about San Leandro, they obtain two or more crops from the same field in the course of the year. They invariably raise some crops for the market, while from the cows, chickens, and pigs, and the orchard and garden almost invariably found on the Portuguese farm, they obtain the larger part of their food supply, so that by the practice of economy at the end of the year they usually have a comfortable balance in their favor. In |