CHAPTER I. BOHEMIANS AND OTHER RACES IN AGRICULTURE: GENERAL SURVEY. BOHEMIANS. The Commission's investigation of Bohemians in agriculture was confined to a detailed study of a small group of more or less scattered families on the Connecticut highland and a rather general survey of the large and flourishing Bohemian communities in Texas. Bohemian families are also found in large numbers in the States of the upper Mississippi valley and in Nebraska, but the Commission's original plan to study some of the latter communities could not be carried out. In general, however, it may be said that the Bohemian farmers in the West are carrying on a diversified agriculture, frequently on a large scale, that they are thoroughly imbued with the progressive spirit of the West, stand on the same social and economic plane as the better farmers in the community of whatever race, and in the second generation are no longer "foreign." They are regarded by their neighbors in the same light as the German and Scandinavian farmers and educationally and socially are invariably placed above any of the other Slavic races. The Twelfth Census figures on occupations showed 71,389 Bohemian male breadwinners of the first generation and 32,707 of the second engaged in gainful occupations. It should be explained that the census classification refers to persons "born in Bohemia," and undoubtedly the figures given include some, who, although born in that Province, are not Bohemians by race. On the other hand there undoubtedly are in the United States some Bohemians who were not born in Bohemia. Of the number mentioned above 32 per cent of the first and nearly 43 per cent of the second generation were engaged in agriculture. These percentages are large and bear witness to the distinctively agricultural character of the Bohemian population; taken together, more than 35 per cent of all breadwinners of Bohemian origin were agriculturists in 1900. The high percentage of farmers, 25.8 per cent of the first generation, is noteworthy; only the Norwegians, with 27 per cent, and the Danes, with 30.6 per cent, showing a higher proportion. In the second generation the percentage of farmers falls off to 15.5 per cent, which is about on a par with the percentage of Anglo-Saxon and German farmers of the second generation. The percentage of farm laborers among the foreign-born Bohemians was low-but 6.2 per cent. Of the second generation more than twice as many farm laborers were enumerated, the percentage rising from 6.2 per cent to 27.3 cent. This is partly explained by the fact that the foreign-born Bohemians who go to the country very soon buy or lease land and, further, that the farm laborers enumerated were frequently children on their fathers' farms. It is true, however, that, like the Poles, many native-born Bohemian boys work on neighboring farms during the summer instead of going to the cities to seek employment. In the table below an attempt is made to show the distribution of Bohemians in the States where the greatest number of farmers and farm laborers of that race have settled. The concentration of Bohemian farmers in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, and Texas is very evident, not far from four-fifths of the 18,094 farmers of the first generation in the United States being found in those States. Nebraska leads with one-fifth of all Bohemian farmers of the first generation, Texas follows with one-sixth. In the second generation there has been a falling off in the percentage distribution of farmers in a number of States, but Iowa shows a decided increase, from 12.1 per cent in the first to 20.5 per cent in the second generation. This is probably a legitimate increase, representing a movement of Bohemian young men to that State. The increased number of farm laborers among the native-born has been noted; the enumeration showed nearly four-fifths almost equally distributed among the five States above mentioned in 1900. Canadian statistics. of immigration for the last five years report a well-defined migration of farmers from the Prairie States to Canada, and local Canadian agents mention Bohemians and other foreigners in the movement. It does not appear, however, that the movement of Bohemians to Canada has assumed significant proportions. TABLE 1.-Geographical distribution of farmers and agricultural laborers of Bohemian parentage by States specified, 1900. [Compiled from Occupations the First and Second Generations of Immigrants in the United States Reports of the Immigration Commission, Vol. 28.] tion. Number. distribu- Number. distribu- Number. distribu- Number. distribu tion. tion. tion. It is seen that in 1900 Texas reported 2,999 Bohemian farmers of the first generation and 538 of the second generation, including more than 15 per cent of all Bohemian (male) farmers in the United States. In 1909 agents of the Commission visited 30 Bohemian settlements in 12 counties of Texas and estimated in the settlements visited 3,269 |