GEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA 247

 Between 1900 and 1910 the percentages of illiteracy declined in every region, as they did nearly everywhere else in the United States, but there were apparently some increases between 1910 and 1915, perhaps due to different methods of federal and State censuses, or even to typographical errors (for the 1915 figures for negro illiteracy in Lake County are so incredibly high that they have been rejected).
 The distribution of illiteracy is not altogether fortuitous, but is governed by several different factors. First. it is usually more prevalent in sparsely settled regions, where school-houses are necessarily few and far apart, than in populous communities and especially in cities. Second, it depends on the racial composition of the.population, for in a given community there is always less ediication among the negroes than among the whites, and where they are the most numerous there is likely to be the greatest contrast between them and the whites in education, wealth, etc. (This is more evident -in Georgia and Alabama than in Florida, though.) Foreigners are usually inferior to native whites in this respect in cities and in mining districts (such as the phosphate regions), but often a little superior in the purely agricultural districts of the South. (This is doubtless because the farmer type of foreigner comes mostly from northern Europe and the laborer type from Latin countries.)
 Another important factor is the distance of birthplace from residence. An illiterate cannot read the advertisements of opportunities in distant states, or the time-tables used on railroad journeys, so that he is not likely to travel far unless he goes with a crowd (as many immigrants from foreign countries do). Probably nearly half the adults in central Florida were born in other states (though the census gives us no adequate information on this point), and must have learned to read before coming here. Florida has a considerably lower illiteracy percentage among native whites than other southeastern states, and central Florida is superior to the rest of the State in that respect, doubtless largely for







 17