THE GROWTH OF RURAL POPULATION. 179 



was greater than for 1870-1880. There is a distinct recovery in the 

 rate of increase in population. 



The statistics given of the north central and Xew England states 

 show that, taken as a whole, the rural sections are not being depopu- 

 lated, but arc increasing in population at a gradually accelerated rate ; 

 townships and villages located near large cities, as a rule, show the 

 greatest gain in population; better methods of transportation and com- 

 munication and improved social conditions actually do tend to stop the 

 depopulation of the rural districts. The reasons which may be given 

 for this increased rate of growth in the population of the rural and 

 suburban districts are many. They may be conveniently classified as 

 follows : First, recent changes and improvements in industrial methods 

 and conditions; second, the improvement in the home and social life 

 of rural communities, due to better methods of transportation and 

 communication. 



At present there is a marked tendency for manufacturing plants to 

 locate in the suburbs or the outskirts of a city. It seems probable that 

 this tendency is to continue and that our manufacturing establish- 

 ments are in the future to be located farther from the crowded portions 

 of a large city or in a small city or town. The value of land is lower 

 and rents are lower than in the densely populated portions of the city. 

 Better shipping facilities can usually be obtained ; switches can be built 

 into the plant itself with little expense. The old two-, three-, or more 

 story shop is being supplanted by the one-story steel structure ; methods 

 of construction have undergone a radical change in recent years. The 

 new style building is better lighted, heated and ventilated than the 

 old ; it also requires more floor space and provides for traveling cranes 

 to carry heavy parts of machinery. Coincident with this change in 

 shop construction has come a change in the methods of transmitting 

 power. Shafting and belting are being replaced in many new shops by 

 compressed air and electricity. The use of compressed air and elec- 

 tricity allows the machines to be spaced much farther apart, as power 

 can be economically transmitted over a much greater distance than in 

 the case where shafts and belts are used. Long distance transmission 

 of electrical power and the utilization of water power will aid in scat- 

 tering manufacturing establishments ' in localities outside the large 

 cities — witness the rapid growth of industrial settlements near jSTiagara 

 Falls and the Sault Sainte Marie. Water power is destined to play a 

 continually increasing part in industrial operations; but if we are 

 able to transmit power economically to considerable distances, there will 

 be no necessity for a close concentration of manufacturing plants in the 

 vicinity of any water-fall. No claim is made that such a change in- 

 volves a return to smaller units or to a greater number of small pro- 

 prietors. It. taken in connection with the preceding, does, however, 



