Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1890-12-06
WHEN WILL EARTH BE- OVER
PEOPLED7

WILL EARTH BE- OVER
PEOPLED7
ng calsulatiOns Produced at =
Aeeans OF the British Association.
FdH Mall Gazette: At the meeting
recently there was 6 joint assembly of
sne geographical and Economic Sec
uons, to consider the subject of the
LANDS OF the globe still available for
european settlement. The audience
consisted of proportion of quite sevsn-
| elgnths OF ladies. Sir Lambert Play
ialr dwelt upon the importance of the
subject, especially after the official in
curry recently held in London upon
the question of colonization, which
showed that many old fields of emigra-
tion were being closed to European
emIgrants. Mr.. E. G.. Ravenstein pro-
duced an elaborate set of statistics to
show that the world will, in the ordi-
nary course of things, be fully inhab-
tied In about 1872 years, which estimate
considerably extends the period at
which some learned men believe hu-
manity will be crowded out. Having
previously swept away the arctic and
antarctic regions as not being essen
tlsl for his argument, he parceled
the remainder out of the earth into:
cultivable land, &c, 469, 900 square miles;
steppe, scrub, poor grass, ETC., IL, 901,-
000 square miles; barren deserts, 4, $780,
600 square miles; a total of 46, $50, 900
square miles. The population living
upon this he reckops at a little over
], 467 ,000,0 900, divided thus: Europe.
800, 200, GOO; Asia. $50, ZOO, 600; Africa,
127 ,000,0 "a much lower estimate
than most people computed; Australia,
4, 730, 900; North America, S9,250, 900;
South America, 81, 100000.
Mr., Ravenstsin showed how, suppos-,
ing the standard of life among the vari-
Gus peoples to remain the same, sup
posing the population increases ct the
rate of eight per cent. in every decade,
and supposing there are no extraordi
nary improvements in agriculture, the
population in the world in the year
2O72 will be 1894 millions. In speak
ing of the populations that these areas
would bear mentioning 207 individuals
to the square mile as fair average) he
suggested that the productiyeness of
the earth might be better utilized when
people understood economy. In ex-
pressing o general opinion that tropical
countries are not fit for Europeans he
granted exceptions to the rule, as, for
example, IN certain now well-known
highlands of Africa One of the the
cries propounded is that there is a
gradual migration of people south
wards, so that in time race of Euro
pean origin may arise who will be &C
climatized in the tropics. On the
whole Mr.. Ravenstein does not despair
that the world will be oYer-populated,
because as new developments occur new
adaptations will be found to meet
them. The Rev. John Mackenzie ex-
pressed the opinion that the Zambesi
will all in course of time be suitable
for European residents. Mr.. J. W.
Wells, who has travelled 5000 miles In
Argentina and Brazil, thought that
there is every prospect of speedy con-
struction of vast system of rail and
huvial communication all over the
country. The sum total of the discus |
sion so far was an assurance that there |
are plenty of places in the world fit for |
population, that there is demand for !
population ali over the world, and that
we need not particularly worry our
selves as to whether the globe will be
over-populated in generations to come.
Mr.. John Coles, of the Geographical
Society, and travel editor of the Field,
later added that he had had yellow
fever in Brazil and seen fever in the
high plateaux of British Columbia that
was very like it; he had known malarial
fever produced by irrigation in new
countries; and he warned his hearers
that many of the lands in the Far West
of North America which were repre-
sented as available for emigrants were
made hopelessly unavailable by the ex-
tortionate demands of speculative land
sharks.