The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-08-20
FAMINE OF The FUTURE.

Possibilities OF the Extinction of tho
Human Race by Starvation.
Mr. Ravenstein, member Of the
British association for the advancement
Of science, has been computing the
probable increase of the human race on
the earth. He arrives at the startling
conclusion that in 182 years the density
of population upon the globe will be such
that the means of subsistence will be in,
adequate to its support He estimates
the population of the world of the pres
ent year at ,46s, 600. .0oo. He finds that
the average increase every ten years is
about per cent.
The section of the country still open to
colonization comprises parts of Africa,
North and South America, Australia,
some outlying islands, the steppes and
deserts. The total area of all the habit
able lands in the world is over 10000, 900
of square miles. OF this area the fertile
or comparatively fertile lands are over
| %, ,O00, 600 of square miles, the bare grass
lands or steppes Il, 900, 900, and the bare
| deserts 1000, 180 square miles.
| To the steppes he allocates popula-
| ton of ten to the square mile, and to the
desert regions one to the square mile.
The bulk of the population would, there
fore. have to subsist on the $4,000, 900
square miles of fertile lands. Compar-
ing the density of population-in India
175 to the square mile, in China 295 to
the square mile and in Japan =264 to the
square mile-he arrives at the conclu-
sion that world population of 207 to
the square mile in the cultivable regions
would be a fair estimate.
This 207 persons to the square mile
will be reached in 1872 years at the pres
ent rate of increase, when the total pop
ulation of the cultivable area would be
$3.50, 100000, and the total number the
earth would feed 1894, 900, 900.
Any further increase of population
must either be provided for by diminu-
ton of subsistence to each individual or
by some improved mode of production,
or by keeping down the future birth rate
below the death rate. Mr.. Ravenstein's
statistics do not concern us of the pres
ent generation very vitally. We can
leave the solution to our great-grand-
children. We have increased and null
tiplied very comfortably in spite of the
lugubrious warnings of Mr.. Nautilus.
and perhaps they also will multiply and
increase in spite of Mr.. Ravenstein.
If any race must go to the wall, it may
be confidently predicted it will not be
the white race. There will be a Oar
winian survival of the fittest. The weak
er races will disappear before the
stronger. The Indian will ultimately
vanish from this continent, and the Afri
can in his native land bids fair to bt
decimated.
The tendency of population to the cite!
must also be taken into account in any
comparison of people to areas of reason
able subsistence. Concentration in larg,
towns always tends to increased produc
tion within a wide circuit around them
especially in the line of fruits and vege
tables. Two hundred years hence th
, desert lands which Mr.. Ravenstein re
CARDS as incapable of cultivation ma,
blossom as the rose. Already irrigation
is working wonders in the unpromisint
soil in some of our western states. Mod
ern science will teach many ways of in
creasing the food supply.
Mr.. Ravenstein's speculations ar
plausible and his statistics suggestiv
enough, but the figures of today may b
utterly falsifed by the figures of 20'
, years hence. Many things may inter
vene in the meantime to keep down pop
ulation or increase the food supply. Th
extinction of the race by starvation is
5 very remote contingency indeed, ant
7 Mr.. Rayenstein's 182 years bid fair t
, stretch out indefinitely before that con
| tingency occurs.-Baltimore Sun.