Mt. Gilead district | 4,120 | 4,478
----------------------+-------+-------

The following incorporated towns for the same period are charged with
a corresponding decrease in the number of their inhabitants:

-------------+-------+-------
| 1900. | 1890.
-------------+-------+-------
Hamilton | 364 | 407
Hillsboro | 131 | 156
Leesburg | 1,513 | 1,650
Lovettsville | 97 |
Middleburg | 296 | 429
Waterford | 383 | 385
-------------+-------+-------

These circumstances of fluctuation and actual decrease might appear
singular if it could not be shown that practically the same conditions
obtain elsewhere in the State and Union, or wherever agriculture is
the dominant industry. Especially is this true of the counties of
Clarke, Fauquier, Prince William, and Fairfax, in Virginia, and
Jefferson, in West Virginia. All these farming communities adjoin
Loudoun and exhibit what might be called corresponding fluctuations of
population between the above-named periods.

A decrease then in the population of any of these districts is
obviously due, in a large measure, to the partial or total failure of
the crops which causes the migration of a portion of the population to
large cities or other parts of the country. If the failure occurs