INTEBMING-LING OF RACES 247 



It is unfortunate, in view of the facts in the case, that 

 many should still scoff at the conclusions of Malthus on 

 the subject of population, reached a century ago. The 

 impossibility of the food supply keeping pace with an un- 

 checked natural increase of population is a truism which 

 cannot be glossed over by pointing to the ingenuity of 

 man in applying mechanics to agriculture. The truth is 

 that the world is approaching a population limit faster 

 even than Malthus supposed, and the result of applying 

 new methods to field culture is merely to exploit the 

 natural fertility of the soil at a higher rate. The sup- 

 posed increase in the amount of food is illusory. In the 

 United States, naturally the richest country on the globe, 

 the per capita production of all the important meat 

 animals and some of the great agricultural crops 

 is decreasing. 



At present the situation is this : China, having reached 

 the limit of her food supply, and having little or no 

 foreign trade, has become stationary in population. Large 

 portions of Europe and the country of Japan have reached 

 the limit of sustenance within themselves, but are increas- 

 ing at a rate of from ten to fifteen per thousand annually 

 because their commerce is such as to permit importation 

 to supply the deficit. Australia and New Zealand and 

 other parts of Asia and Europe are increasing at a rate 

 which neither their agriculture nor their commerce can 

 long sustain. The Americas and Africa are left as the 

 great centres of colonization. Each will support a large 

 additional number of people ; but when they have reached 

 their limit, and that limit will come within a very few 

 centuries three at most each country, or at least each 

 continent, must support its own population. 



