CHANGES IN POPULATION 



17 



farming is worth while only if it bears fruit in better liv- 

 ing. It is needful, therefore, to study farm life and farm 

 business, just as it is needful to study flowers, fruits and 

 farm stock. 



11. Population. There are more than 100,000,000 

 people living in the United States. These people may be 

 divided into two classes, the city dwellers and the coun- 

 try dwellers. Since 1900 the United States Census Bureau 

 regards all districts having a population of 2500 or more 

 as cities. The following table from the Census Reports 

 shows the percentage of our population in country and 

 in city at different periods : 



That is, when Washington was President, only one man 

 out of thirty in America lived in town. Twenty-nine out 

 of every thirty lived in the country. To-day the propor- 

 tions are nearly half and half. 1 The whole population has 

 grown steadily during this century and a quarter; but 

 plainly the country population and the city population 

 must have grown at different rates. The following table 

 from the Census Reports shows these rates: 



1 The Director of the Federal Census Bureau, to whom these figures were 

 submitted for verification, stated to the author that pupils should bear in 

 mind that, were the dividing line between city and country 8,000 as in the 



