UNITED STATES CENSUS. 



STREET RAILWAYS. 



" As a whole," remarks the Superintendent of 

 Census, in concluding his review of the situation, 

 " the plains and the Cordilleran region have been 

 peopled rapidly, especially in the northern por- 

 tions. It is this region which, by virtue of its 

 virgin soil, cheap land, and easy tillage, has re- 

 duced the profits of Eastern agriculture, and has 

 thus drawn so heavily upon the farming popu- 

 lation of the more eastern States. The rich 

 mineral deposits of Montana and Arizona have 

 been largely instrumental in drawing population 

 to this region. While the mineral product of 

 Colorado has not diminished, the era of specula- 

 tion is over, and the floating population which 

 covered its mountains and valleys ten years ago 

 has, in the main, departed." 



Center of Population. The geographer of 

 the census reports officially that the center of 

 population is now in southern Indiana, at a point 



a little west of south of Greensburg, the county 

 seat of Decatur County, and 20 miles east of Co- 

 lumbus, Ind. The exact geographical location 

 is in latitude 39 11' 56" and longitude 85 32' 

 53". After saying that " the center of popula- 

 tion is the center of gravity of the population of 

 the country, each individual being assumed to 

 have the same weight," the geographer thus de- 

 scribes the manner of procedure : " The popula- 

 tion of the country was first distributed by 

 'square degrees,' as the area included Ix-tw.-.-M 

 consecutive parallels and meridians has been 

 designated. A point was then assumed tenta- 

 tively as the center, and corrections in latitude 

 and longitude to this tentative position were com- 

 puted. In this case the center was assumed to 

 be at the intersection of the parallel of 39 with 

 the meridian of 86 west of Greenwich. The 

 population of each square degree was assumed 



