328 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 37. 



"In ]869 97% of England's population, 

 say, 18J out of 19 millions, were fed on 

 English-grown wheat. In 1890, with a 

 population of 25 millions, only 5 millions 

 were supplied with English wheat, a falling- 

 off of 77 % . The decrease in wheat average 

 in 40 years, from 1846 to 1886, was nearly 

 66%." 



The tendency of population from the 

 country to the cities is a consequence of the 

 increased production of manufactures and 

 of the decrease in the percentage of the total 

 population required to produce the food of 

 the world. This tendency in the United 

 States is shown in the following census 

 figTires: 



Urban population, per cent, of total. 



United States 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 



Percent 12.49 16.13 20.93 22.57 29.12 



In the northern central division of the 

 United States, in the past ten years, the 

 urban element has nearlj^ doubled, while 

 the total pof)ulation has increased only 

 25.78 % . The increase in urban population 

 is confined mainly to a few large cities. 



The completion of the Trans-Siberian 

 Eailroad, and the extension of railroads in 

 India and in the Argentine Republic will 

 probably before long make Europe inde- 

 pendent of the grain crop of America. Mr. 

 Worthington C. Ford, Chief of the United 

 States Bureau of Statistics, in the North 

 American Eevieiv for August, says: "It is 

 now the Argentine Republic which appears 

 to have an almost unlimited power to. grow 

 and export wheat in defiance of any com- 

 petition." The perfection of refrigerating 

 machines — an engineering triumph — makes 

 it now possible for Europe to receive its 

 supply of meat from Australia and from the 

 Argentine Republic, as well as from the 

 United States. The introduction of mod- 

 ern cotton machineiy into Japan and into 

 India threatens the cotton trade of England 

 with exclusion from the markets of Asia, 

 one of England's greatest present resources, 

 lu Australia, according to Mr. Ford, the 



ranchmen are successfully overcoming one of 

 the most serious obstacles to the extension of 

 sheep raising, by sinking artesian wells and 

 making pools or dams to retain the water 

 for their stock — another example of the ap- 

 plication of engineering in using nature's 

 stored forces to overcome the resistance of 

 nature. There thus appears to be no limit 

 to the economic changes throughout the 

 world which may yet be made by the use 

 of engineering appliances. 



Marked economic effects have attended 

 the building, or failing to build, important 

 highways in the United States of whatever 

 kind where opportunity and need existed. 

 The early topographical engineers of the 

 country, including especially George Wash- 

 ington, who was an engineer by profession, 

 foresaw that at whatever point on the At- 

 lantic coast an outlet should be made for 

 the products of the Ohio and Mississippi 

 valleys, a great, probably the greatest, sea- 

 port would arise. Virginia was at this time 

 far in advance of the other States, and 

 especially of N'ew York. * * * Washington 

 urged the Legislature of Virginia to build 

 a canal connecting the Ohio River and the 

 James or Potomac, so as to place the outlet 

 at Norfolk. His advice was not heeded. 

 Subsequently New York, under the leader- 

 ship of De Witt Clinton, constructed the 

 Erie Canal, connecting Lake Erie, at Buffalo, 

 with the Hudson, at Albany, then a stu- 

 pendous feat of State enterprise in finance 

 and civil engineering. Until that canal was 

 built New York city had little more than 

 the trade of the Hudson River valley. The 

 building of the canal made New York the 

 Empire State, and the city the commercial 

 metropolis of the Union — Denslow, p. 150. 



Who can estimate the economic value to 

 the United States of that great feat of engi- 

 neering, the building of the first railroad 

 across the continent ? What an increase of 

 the wealth of nations has flowed from the 

 opening of the Suez Canal, and what another 



