The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1875-05-19
HE Approaching Limit 10 Ameri-
can Development.
Galaxy for April ]

Galaxy for Aprill
In a community that is young in years,
redundance of population may occur as a
result of immigration or Of natural in
crease, and even a thinly settled region
may be as much over populated as the
cities. The Highlands Of Scotland, for
instance, as Nautilus tells US, were, even
when he wrote, probably more redun-
+ dant in population than any other part
of great Britain" and in our own thinly
settled country we find regions where
+ the same condition begins to appear. The
census of 1870 shows that for ten years
before that date people were quitting the
sterile hills of New England and seeking
the towns and cities. The entire popula-
ton Of some States, as Maine and New
Hampshire, diminished during the de-
cade; and it would seem that we are ap-
preaching the limits of population in the
East.
But the West, the boundless West
Well, when we talk of the West we need
a good geographical map in hand, such
as the Germans make Such a map, and
the testimony of travellers who have no
trans-continental railway bonds to sell,
viii show us that there is comparatively
little more room for population west of
the Mississippi valley. The geograp pliers
estimate the whole area of these United
States and Territories at about three and
half million square miles, an area not
greatly less than that of China or Siberia.
But from this area we have to deduct
full million of square miles in one
'block," nearly third of the whole, for
the vast mountain region that lies west of
the Mississippi valley. From the eastern
slopes of the Rocky Mountains to the
western wall of the Sierra Nevada, 5000
miles from east to west in the latitude Of
San Francisco and from Mexico all the
way to Canada, 1000 miles from north
to south, the larger part of the country
Is hOw{ing wilderness, and not only
this, but an irreclaimable Wilderness
Explorers and surveyors tell us that most
of this region is a malpays, an unwatered
country OF barren mountains and sterile
highlands, a domain of minerals and
snow, and that its mere elevation makes
it unsuitable for the habitation of
an agricultural people. Much of it is a
full mile too high in the air for the ripen-
ing Of crops in our ATTITUDES. The Ter
ritory of Wyoming contains 81, 900
square miles, and not foot Of it is less
than four thousand feet above the sea
level. The lowest valley of Utah, eek
cept possibly few of the sunken deserts
of the south, is higher than the average
SUBMITS of the Allegheny Noun
tains; and Nevada is hardly lower than
Utah. We know that in South Ameri-
ca whole communities live and cultivate
their crops at much greater elevation than
these but it is in regions that are also
much nearer the equator and proportion
ateIy warmer. The writer just quoted
says: CAT the Nevaj 10 farms in Arizona
| have seen icicles SIX inches long on the
rocks, only three hundred feet above the
fields, on the 18th of June, and in 1871,
when the Indians had with great labor
brought forward crop of corn and plant
ed young orchards, on the night of May
81, storm of sleet froze every plant and
tree solid to the ground. x * If there
were no other causes, elevation alone would
farmer" And General w. B. Hazen
tells us from his own observation, in the
n orth American Review, January, 1875,
that "'the western limit of our agricul-
tural lands has been reached by settle
Grande to the forty-ninth parallel of
latitude" From the Tooth meridian
to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, dis
lance of 1 200 miles, there is not more
than one acre to the hundred that has any
appreciate value for agricultural pur-
poses, or that will for the next 100 years
sell for any appreciable sum. Moreover,
for 100 miles before reaching that meridi-
an, there is comparatively little good
land" And he adds: "The phenomena
of the formation and rapid growth of
new, rich, and populous States will no
more be seen in our present domain"
No; the westward rolling tide of popu-
lation is already beating against the limits
of our habitable domain; and there, ex-
cept for scanty population of miners
and graziers, the proud wave must be
stayed. Doubtless our .habitable coun-
try is to be much more thickly settled
than at present. But this does not imply
that our population is to rival that OF
India or China.
Climate, and other things which could
be treated only in technical essay, are
against US; and each new census falls
short not only of the popular expectation,
but of the estimates of experts made In
advance While we are still distant from
the limit of our population, we are prob
ably much nearer it than we suppose
We people continents by steam power
nowadays; and the process has been car
ried on so rapidly in America that our
immigrants are already returning in con-
siderable numbers to Europe.
But this question must not detain us.
Let me ask another that is allied with it,
namely How old is the American char
acter to-day.