WAGES 39 



pace of increase to accord with the extent of their 

 resources and the progress of knowledge, and it is 

 allowable therefore to speculate upon a permanent 

 improvement in their condition. 



The resources now available in the world are 

 sufficient to provide all of the European stock with land 

 enough to make it unnecessary for them to bring into 

 cultivation the inferior grades, and the possibility 

 accordingly exists of making the sole regulator of their 

 condition the extent of science. 



A review of the capacity of the insufficiently peopled 

 continents of the New Worlds will show the extent of 

 good land now available on the earth. 



The population of Europe is about four hundred 

 million souls, and to maintain themselves they employ 

 30 per cent, of their land surface, using nearly all of it 

 as arable land. The land well suited for cultivation, 

 however, is only an eighth, or about 12 per cent., of the 

 whole. Europe employs two and three times more 

 land than this because its population is two and three 

 times greater than can be maintained by the use of 

 the good land alone. If the people were to confine 

 their food-making to the superior soil, it would be 

 possible to provide only for a hundred and fifty millions, 

 and about two hundred and fifty millions must be 

 removed, or must draw there subsistence from elsewhere. 

 Does there exist elsewhere in the world good land 

 capable of supporting such a large number ? 



The North American Continent, being roughlj' twice 

 the size of Europe, should be able to maintain from its 

 superior lands alone (allowing them to be 12 per cent, of 

 the total surface) a population of three hundred millions. 

 The same number should be similarly maintainable in 

 South America, which approximately equals the North 

 in size. And Australia, being of about the same area as 

 Europe, should be able from its better land to support 

 a population of a hundred and fifty million souls. 



