The New York herald., 1920-12-26
What's Doing in 2100?

If you are a believer in the cold
calculations Of purely scientific men
you will make no arrangements for
business enlargement beyond 4. ID.
2100. We have ii from Professor
RAYMOND PEARL of Johns Hopkins
that by the date named. which is only
$50 years hence, the United States
will have all the population it can
sustain. This number Mr.. PEARL esti-
mates at 197,000,000, about 90,000,000
more than are now in the continental
States. After that dread year, says
the scientist, who is eminent in his
profession, this country will have to
rely on imports to feed an increasing
population.
This will be a shock not only to
readers who have been insisting that
all the inhabitants Of the world could
subsist in and on Texas but to every
body who Is making plans for his
at-grandchildren's grandchildren.
Here we are now, tilllng less tnan
one-sixth Of the land of the United
States, raising yearly three billion
bushels of corn and billion bushels
OF wheat, exporting foodstuffs by the
heetload, and wishing that we could
get enough people here so that there
would be more than thirty-hve to the
square mile. And along comes RAY
MoND PEARL and his scare.
The trouble with Professor PEARL Is
that he is q scientist and full Of ac-
curacy. He undoubtedly has studied
carefully the rate Of population in
crease, food consumption, the size of
the land ana the past averages in
food production. But he has not
studied the future In the light of the
lrw OF surprises. He is Just as much
in the dark about A. u. 2100 as the
wisest men Of A. d. 1740 were about
\. ID. 1920. IL a man of 1740 had been
told that in 1920 we should have trac-
tors, harvesters, pneumatic silo filters
and methods for attracting beneficent
bacteria from the air to the roots Of
legumes he would have laughed de-
risively. He would not have believed
that American boys could grow 240
bushels Of corn TO the acre, He
would have secuted the idea Of a hen
that would lay $50 eggs in year.
He would have scoffed those cows
which now yield an unbelievable guam
tity of milk. lie would have refuse !
to imagine the fatness Of the steers
that Chicago leads to the slaughter
Nobody could have convinced him Of
the soundness Of the agricultural the
cries which are now accepted by tel
million American farmers.
Scientific agriculture, in the light
Of what has happened in the last fifty
years, must be in its extreme youth.
For instance, man has been watching
the plants and the daylight for many
more centuries than the Pyramids ever
dreamed Of yet It was only two years
ago that the scientists discovered tho
truly remarkable relation between
light--as distinguished from sunshine
and plant growth.
We cannot quite like tho idea or
Texas holding all the billions of the
earth; the Texas delegation in Con
gress Is pretty large rs ft is. Nor can
wo go further and yearn for that time,
declared by the opponents of NAL
THUS to be possible. when every
square yard Of the earth has n human
being on it; that would be congestion.
Rut we decline to feel with Professor
PEARL that the United States Will
have to ring the bell when the popula-
ton reaches l97, 100000. BY that time
we may have twenty farms, each
layer Of earth warmed with electric
ity and stimulated with radlum. The
descendants Of the boys who grow 240
bushels Of corn to the acre will be
Growing 2,400 bushels to the acre and
each kernel as big as a mans thumb.
Maine will be sending out no seed
potato smaller than a football. Hogs
viii weigh a ton at six months.
The past, nj lcss,, is secure, as DAN
wEBsrER said We know just how ele-