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THE UTILITY 01" COMMON STATISTICS 35
All this must involve a great change in the condi-
tions of the growth of population and the general
economic conditions of the country. It confirms in
the most ample manner what was to be surmised from
the bare statement of the geometric increase of popu-
lation itself. pointing as it did to a population of 800
millions at the end of a century from this time. Long
before that it is plain. and I think quite certainly
within twenty-five years. the conditions of the expan-
sion d population must be substantially different from
what they are now.
It will be urged that it is notorious the United
States can support enormous masses of population.
Its available agricultural area in round figures is twelve
or thirteen times that of the United Kingdom. and
eight times that of France. Considering what the
population of the United Kingdom or that of France
is. and the superior fertility of many tracts of the
United States. it appears safe enough to assume that
the United States can support an indefinite increase
of population. and that there is room for great expan-
sion of population within the settled area. But assum-
ing all this to be the case. what we may observe is
that it is not quite to the present point. This is not a
question of supporting a large population anyhow; how
they are to be supported is here all-important. The
moment there is little new land to occupy. the con-
ditions of expansion must change j every year must
bring nearer the date when the fruits of the soil will
be extracted with increasing difficulty. The .agricul-
ture must become different from what it is now. What
has been already said. moreover, as to the U oited
Kingdom and France not supporting all their own
population, and as to what the position in the United
States would be, even as compared with the United
Kingdom and France, if the geometric increase in the
United States should continue no more than a century.
estimated addition to the rural population at the present rate of in-
crease in the next twenty-five years.