34 WAGES AND EMPIRE 



in the United States only ii per cent. Germany and 

 France are certainly not behind the United States either 

 in the variety of plants which they use or in the nature 

 of the machinery which they employ, yet the result of 

 the labourers' work in Germany and France is only 

 a third of what it is in America, and this although the 

 European labourers, certainly those of France and 

 German}^ work no less hard than those of America. 



It is very clear from this that when inferior land is 

 resorted to the power of man to make food is reduced 

 by a half and by two-thirds, and can be even further 

 reduced. 



The circumstances in which, despite scientific progress, 

 popitlonsness heats down subsistence. — The effect upon 

 men's living of the improvements in the science of cul- 

 tivation is different according to the state of populousness 

 of the countries which they inhabit. 



In countries with plenty of land the discoveries of 

 science are employed for magnifying the yield of human 

 effort, and every fresh discovery and new invention 

 augments the living of the people. But in countries 

 where land is scarce the discoveries of science, while 

 producing enhanced returns from land already in culti- 

 vation, may be also employed for bringing within the 

 range of cultivability land hitherto outside that limit. 



If the population stood still the level of comfort of 

 the whole people would be raised, but when the number 

 of inhabitants increases some portion of them must turn 

 to the use of lands that, before uncultivable, with the 

 new discoveries may be made to yield an inferior living. 

 Each advance of science may in this way be negatived 

 by the counter-advance of population ; and, as know- 

 ledge raises the margin of cultivation, increase may 

 again drag it down. In India as fast as the government, 

 by irrigation, provides fresh land to raise the comfort of 

 the people their rapid increase beats down the scale of 

 subsistence. 



