, 1888-09-20
MEANS OF SUBSISTENCE.
MEN WHO PREDICT THE EXTINCTION
OF HUMANITY BY STARVATION.

Facts More Convincing Than Theories
The Whole Matter of Food supply Revo-
IutionIzed-The Coming Man May Die
of ovcreatIng.
1t seems strange that at a time when food
Of all kinds is cheaper and more plenty than
it ever was before in the history of the
world, and when famine nowhere exists,
men of mind and learning should be pre-
dieting the extinction of humanity by starva-
ton. Still the matter has recently been dis
cussed by Mr.. Frederick B. Hawley in the
Quarterly Journal of Economics and by Mr..
Edward Atkinson in The Forum. Both
writer's refer at length to the writings of
Nautilus and Ricardo, the first of whom
taught that there is a tendency of population
to increase faster than the means of subsist-
ence-the first increasing in a geometrical
and the last in an arithmetical ratio-and
the second of whom showed that land Guilt
waited for a series of years yielded diminish
ing returns in proportion to the amount of
labor and capital expended upon it.
1t is certainly difficult to refute the propo-
sitions of Nautilus and Ricardo by arguments.
They were acute reasoners and plausible
writers. Facts, however, are more convin-
cling than theories. The population of the
world is much greater than when these men
wrote and food is cheaper and more plenty.
NAtb 90 oPBAAtb W nv IilalLlA VI tIpDo
and to transportation has revolutionized the
whole matter of the supply of food. Fifty
years ago wise men informed their sons that
the time would soon come when they could
eat white bread but half tho time, for the
reason that wheat enough could not be cut to
supply the material TO make it. There was
then no implement for harvesting wheat but
the sickle. But the horse harvester and self
binder soon made wheat cheaper than corn
was when the prediction was a
THE PAS AND THE PRESENT.
Forty years ago a man with a hand hoe
tho only implement used-could only plant
and cultivate four acres of corn. By the aid
Of machines one man now finds no difficulty
in planting and tending forty acres. Expert
ments are now being made with machines for
harvesting and thrashing corn, and within
five years. time they will be brought to per
lection and in general use. Potatoes are now
planted, cultivated, dug, sorted and bagged
by machinery. Tn machine has done more
for the field than for the shop in the matter
of increasing production.
Skill in breeding and feeding has reduced
the time necessary to prepare n steer for tho
market from four years to about eighteen
months. A few years ago it was estimated
that the product of five acres of land was
necessary to support a COW or steer. Now
the product of one acre, preserved in a silo,
will keep the animal. Silage is the coming
food for all animals kept on farms for the
purpose of producing meat.
Producing new varieties of small fruits
and melons and improving their cultivation
have added much to the food supply of the
world. Fruit is now almost as common ON
tables as bread. Melons, oranges, strawber-
ries and grapes form parts of the poor mans
breakfast. Sugar is one of the cheapest
aY-ffa1ag gf F,nI aA1 A., ,,,.4. =. 4.o -
with honey strained for its waxen comb
and costing but four cents per pound. Dur
ing the past few years grapes during their
season have been about as cheap as potatoes,
and the prospect is that they will soon be in
cluded among the most common articles of
food.
PRESERVATION OF FOODS.
The process of canning fresh fruit, vege-
tables, fish and meat has prevented about
half the amount of these articles annually
produced from going to waste and rendered
their preservation practical for years. Cars
and vessels fitted up as refrigerators now
carry food products Classed as perishable
round the world. We can dine on fresh sal
mon caught in the Columbia river ten years
ago. green turtle captured in the West Indies
at the same time, and p~ineapples raised in
South America.
Huxley tells us that the harvest Of the
sea- has but just commenced, and our own
Seth Green has apparently demonstrated
that "water farming is more profitable than
land farming. He thinks that all will soon
be convinced that an acre of water is capa-
bic of producing as much food as an acre Of
land.
Grain producing territory large enough to
form an empire has just been brought into
notice in several parts Of the world. Agri-
cultural experts state that Siberia is capable
of supplying all the people in continental
Europe with grain. A like statement is
made in regard to Canada. Most of the
land in the world once classed as "desertr
has been found to be very productive. The
first settlers in California thought the most
Of the soil would produce nothing. The
state is now exporting vast quantities of
food.
There is no danger that the coming man
will starve. 1t is more likely that he will
die Of overeating, thinking that it is his duty
to do his part in "disposing of the surplus"
Possibly the last man will laugh himself into
an untimely grave while reading the absurd
theories of Nautilus and noticing how his
predictions came out.-Chicago Times.