The Decline in Farm Family Fertility and Its Relationship to Nationality and Religious Background.

Farm family fertility in five areas selected on the basis of nationality and religion has shown a differential decline in the period from 1875 to 1940. In this paper no effort was made to explain the over-all decline in farm family fertility. German Lutherans showed the greatest decline, namely 65 per cent, followed by the Norwegian's 58 per cent and the German Catholic's 40 per cent. Nationality coupled with religion are obviously factors explaining some of this differential decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]