218 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



count against the unpleasantness of country life and in favor of making 

 such life attractive. Influences of this sort, joined to the agricultural 

 education of the young and to the practical teaching of the farmer 

 how to do by doing, at the time when farming is prosperous and 

 profitable, may be depended upon to save to our agriculture all the 

 labor it will need for the maintenance of our national self-sufficiency. 



60. NATURAL INCREASE OF THE RURAL POPULATION 



a) IN EARLY TIMES 1 

 BY T. R. MALTHUS 



In the northern states of America, where the means of subsistence 

 have been more ample, the manners of the people more pure, and the 

 checks to early marriages fewer than in any of the modern states of 

 Europe, the population was found to double itself, for some successive 

 periods, every twenty-five years. In the back settlements, where 

 the sole employment is agriculture, and vicious customs and unwhole- 

 some occupations are little known, the population was found to 

 double itself in fifteen years. 



b) AT THE PRESENT TIME 2 

 BY EDWARD VAN DYKE ROBINSON 



The country population of Minnesota increased very rapidly up 

 to 1880, and at a less rapid rate up to 1900, since which date it has 

 been practically stationary. This result might come about through 

 a higher death-rate, a lower birth-rate, or the migration to the cities 

 either of individuals or of large families. The death-rate certainly 

 has not risen, though reliable statistics are not available as to its 

 actual course for the country population. The birth-rate, on the other 

 hand, has declined, at least in some of the older rural districts, from 

 41 . 5 per thousand in 1860 to 14 . 7 for a recent five-year period. This 

 decline of nearly two-thirds in the birth-rate would alone suffice, if 

 general, to explain the decrease of country population. That it is at 

 least widespread is shown by the fact that in one school district after 

 another where formerly there were 25 to 35 children, there are now 

 only 5 to 10. Families now number 3 or 4 in place of 8 to 10. On the 



1 Adapted from An Essay on the Principle of Population, 2d ed., p. 4. 



1 Adapted from Early Economic Conditions and the Development of Agriculture 

 in Minnesota, 'University of Minnesota Studies in the Social Sciences, No. 3, 

 pp. 215-16. (Copyright by the University of Minnesota.) 



