Morning journal and courier., 1893-08-15
Climate and Subsistence. Alexander Wolikof in Breslau Deutsche I


 yue.l
 How much room is there still on the earth for msnkindl This Is a question which is softsn raised and which is an- swered in a great many different ways. As all food is, either directly or indirectly, derived from the vegetable kingdom, and the plants need the light and heat of the suu, the question ss to how the light and heat are distributed Is an important one. If we assume (which Is true) that only sixty psr cent. O. the heat of the gun resches the earth, the remainder being ab- sorbed by the atmosphere, then attitudes twenty degrees north and south will re- ceive ninety-two per cent; forty degrees north and south sixty eight per cent six ty degrees north and south forty per cent, and the poles only seventeen per cent. of the heat received at tine equator. There fore the countries which, on account of the amount of heat received, are in the most favorable circumstances to produce s great amount of vegetable food, lie in the trol lics, provided the other condition of plant life Is found, that is, dampness. In Europe people were particularly impressed with the information communicated by Humboldt, on his return from his Ameri- can journey, concerning the great amount of food furnished by the banana in tropi cal countries. It was later proved, how ever, that the distinguished naturalist was mistaken, first, in ascriblng 80 high 8 state of productivensss to the banana, and sec opd, because the banana Is not generally suitable to be used ss the principal food for man. As the grains are cultivated wherever agriculture Is advanced, in the damp parts of south and east Asis we find rice; in tse dry parts of India and the greater part of tropical Africa, millst and ssgo; and in tropical America principally corn. The banana Is even less fitted to furnish the sta Jle food than the potato; ss an accessory, however, like the potato In the wealthy countries of Europe and North America, 1t is very important. As a dense population Is only possible where there is a certain amount of cultivation, we must keep in mind the experience of many thousand years and accept the grains as the base of nourishment.
 The Little Antilles and Msscsrens Is- lands are of intense fertility, and export a great deal of sugar, and import not only industrial products, but a great deal of food stuff. The ground, therefore, does not directly nourish the population. Sew eral parts of India export food-stuffs, aud
 
 the interior commercs in theee products. Tonquin has too lately been annexed to France to obtain trustworthy statistics. Java, with Madurs, Is alone suited to our statistical necessities. This country Is sufficiently large, it furnishes good ststis- tics of agriculture and commerce, and the imports and exports are carefully regis tered. The population is about ss dense ss in Belgium and Ssxony, but life Is sup ported under very different circumstances; Ssxony and Belgium import food stuffs and export mineral and manufactured pro- ducts. Java imports a very small amount of rice and salt hsb, and exports many more agricultural products. It not only supplies its own people with fooc but finds 1t possible to buy mineral and manu fsctured products. It might be supposed that this immense population would be di- vided in a certain proportion on the is- land, and either that its increase would be small, as in France and Belgium, or else there would bs large emigration, as from Great Britain or Germany.
 Neither case Is true. Emigration Is scarcely known; the population increases at the rate of one per cent. year, and its distribution varies 80 greatly that In the | eastern portion there are fewer people than | in the swampy province of Minsk in Rus | sis, and in the central part there are al most twice as many people ss in Belgium and Saxony, and yet eighty per cent. of | the population iu this part of the island | live by agriculture. Rice Is the staple, and the statistics give two hundred and | thirry-eight kilcgrammes to each inhsbi- tant. Only about fifteen per cent. of the | surface of the island Is devoted to the cul- Il tivstion of rice. This is still in & very | primitive state, but the government has taken it up and the production will be | greatly increased. Java is 6 mountainous | country, but these mountains are not high, and the rainfall is great, and rice can be cultivated on thirty per cent. of the sur face for the first crop and ten per cent. for the second. We have therefore possible | extension of the cultivation of Iics to ht- l ty-two hundred thousand hectares. An average crop to this amount of acreage would support nine million people.
 The surfscs of Java could be divided In this manner: Thirty per cent. of the wa tered surface would produce rice. yegets-
 bles, bresd-fruit and agricultural exports. Fifteen per cent, not watered, would pro- duce bread-fruit and agricultural exports.
 Eight per cent, not wstered, coffee and
 tea plantations. Two per cent, wstered,
 sugar cane. There would then be left
 forty-five per cent. for forest. gardens,
 meadows. waters, roads and dwellings.
 The people of Java need not then be con
 demned to live on rice alone. Fruits are
 very important and necessary for health,
 and in Java alone are found one hundred
 different kinds. Cattle can be easily
 raised, and the superabundant numbers of
 water plants, insects and worms that arc
 found in tropical countries furnish sn easy
 mesns of feeding fsh and fowls. We
 find, therefore, that in this country eight
 hundred men could find support on ons
 square kilometre, or more than four times
 as many people as are now there.
 The Corinth Canal.