ABSTRACT
We examined patterns of shifting cropland cultivation in the US Great Plains from the dust bowl to the beginning of the 21st century, by comparing land-cover data from 400 sample sites across the region from the 1930s, 1950s, 1970s and, 1990s and 2000s. We argue that understanding the use of marginal land for cultivation in the Great Plains since the Great Depression requires understanding the interacting dynamics of demography, technology, and policy. The small area land-cover data are nested within 50 target counties across the region. We draw on these dynamics, and their interactions with a range of policy programs aimed at reducing environmental impacts of agriculture, to tell the story of how and when marginal lands have been brought into use. In a multi-level panel design, macro- and micro-level covariates were used to predict levels of encroachment on marginal soils. We conclude that land retirement programs (like the Conservation Reserve Program) have had a generally stabilizing effect on the micro-level patterns of land use in recent decades, but that increased levels of encroachment on marginal soils and native grassland remain a problem in areas with higher or increasing population densities.
ABSTRACT
Using a representative sample of the Hispanic population of the United States based on the manuscripts of the 1910 census, we estimate childhood mortality for the period from approximately 1890 to 1910. We find high child mortality in the Hispanic population, higher than for non-Hispanic whites but not significantly different than among nonwhite non-Hispanics (mostly African Americans). Hispanic rural farm populations in California, Texas, and Arizona experienced high mortality, but not as high as other Hispanic populations. Child mortality was very high among Hispanic residents of New Mexico and those in Florida outside Tampa; it was especially low in the Hispanic population in Tampa.
Subject(s)
Hispanic or Latino/history , Infant Mortality , Black or African American , Arizona , California , Censuses , Child, Preschool , Ethnicity , Female , Florida , History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , Humans , Infant , Infant, Newborn , Kansas , Los Angeles , Male , Mothers , New Mexico , Regression Analysis , Rural Population , Texas , Urban Population , White PeopleABSTRACT
This study examines the determinants of fertility control in a frontier population made up largely of German-Americans during the years from 1850 to 1910. The analysis employs a complex register of population constructed from census enumerations, civil and ecclesiastical vital registration, and tax assessment rolls. The article begins with a series of bivariate analyses with cohort of mother's birth, religion, ethnicity, and husband's occupation determining marital fertility. The second half of the paper presents a multivariate model of the determinants of fertility using these and other demographic characteristics as independent variables. The conclusions emphasize the importance of the overall trend toward fertility decline in the United States, as well as the role of religion and of occupational differences, in determining changes in fertility behavior in the population of Gillespie County, Texas.
Subject(s)
Birth Rate , Family Planning Services/history , Fertility , Rural Population/history , Acculturation , Adolescent , Adult , Female , History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , Humans , Infant, Newborn , Male , Middle Aged , Socioeconomic Factors , TexasABSTRACT
"This article is about identifying the origins of fertility limitation in a way designed to overcome the constraints which require that fertility control be discovered only after it is undeniable. The analysis is based on data from the Belgian commune of La Hulpe, covering the period from 1846-1880. It shows (using hazard models) that the clearest signs of fertility control were visible among literate women and the bourgeoisie." (SUMMARY IN FRE)
