DENSITY OF POPULATION 23 



Ireland, it should be added, comes fairly high 

 up on the list when taken alone ; the pro- 

 portion of the agricultural population is 44.7 

 per cent, of the whole, which places it be- 

 tween Denmark and France. 



Density of Population. 



The foregoing statistics, with the qualifi- 

 cation mentioned above, state in summary 

 terms the actual position of agriculture as an 

 occupation in the several States. But when 

 inferences are drawn from them it becomes 

 necessary to take other conditions into 

 account. Like must be compared as far as 

 possible with like. The proportion of the 

 population living by agriculture is necessarily 

 conditional, in the first place, by the extent 

 of soil available in proportion to the inhabi- 

 tants. A sparsely-populated land, such as 

 Russia or the United States, offers opportuni- 

 ties which do not exist in a densely-populated 

 one such as Belgium or England. The 

 density must therefore be taken into account, 

 and it is given accordingly in the second 

 column of the foregoing table. 



It will be seen that there is a certain 

 amount of correspondence between density 

 of population and the position of agriculture, 

 though many discrepancies occur. Some of 

 them are due to the fact that the total area, 

 which is the basis of the calculation, contains 



