884 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 574 



rainfall. This is an emphasis on the cyclonic 

 unit which we have long hoped to see. 



E. DeC. Ward. 



SOME STATE CENSUS FIGURES FOB 1905. 



The state censuses for 1905 are showing 

 some instructive returns. Iowa, for instance, 

 shows a loss of 15,000 persons since 1900. The 

 cities of 5,000 population and over gained 

 Y7,000 people in all; the towns under 5,000 

 and the rural districts together report a loss 

 of 92,000. ^ In Minnesota, where the gain dur- 

 ing the decade, 1890 to 1899, inclusive, was 

 33.7 per cent., there has apparently been a 

 slowing up. The decennial rate was 3.37 per 

 cent, a year; but for the past five years, 1900 

 to 1905, there was a gain of only 13 per cent., 

 or 2.6 per cent, a year. As the basis broadens 

 the rate of accretion necessarily becomes 

 slower, while in Iowa the rate indicates even 

 retrogression. The indications are that, either 

 from urban migration or from other causes, 

 or from all combined, the farming population 

 even in the most prosperous portions of the 

 west has practically ceased to grow. 



One reason for this, if the view of arrested 

 growth be accepted, is to be found in the 

 rapidly rising price of farming land. Tor the 

 past several years or more the trend of prices 

 of land has gone upward with the prices of 

 farm produce. Iowa, being a dairying and 

 stock-growing state, has come to put such 

 values upon her farm lands as to dislodge the 

 old style of farming for a family home, in 

 favor of the capitalistic farmer — the farmer 

 who puts surplus income back into land, into 

 better methods of cu.ltivation, better stock and 

 better facilities. The old-style farmer moves 

 off to Canada for frontier lands, or to the 

 southwest or northwest, where land is cheaper, 

 after having reaped the reward of waiting, in 

 the form of the unearned increment. 



Kansas took her fifth decennial census on 

 March 1, 1905, and found the insignificant 

 increase of 8,658 persons in one year, the total 

 population being 1,543,868. This gives an 

 average of 14,703 people for each of the 105 

 counties. Of these counties 58 report an in- 

 crease, and 47 a decrease, compared with 



March 1, 1904. The highest increase is 2,987 

 persons out of a total of 48,058, or 6.6 per cent, 

 gain in one year. The largest decline is one 

 of 2,087 persons, leaving a population of 24,- 

 907, or 9.1 per cent, less 'than a year earlier. 

 These are marked changes to occur in so small 

 a population m the course of twelve months 

 from ordinary causes in times of prosperity in 

 city and country alike. 



Turning from country to city, we see that 

 in Kansas towns the same shifting is going 

 on. One might think that towns have been 

 the gainers of country losses; but this is not 

 always the case. The changes are due to a 

 wider range of influences than urban attrac- 

 tion. Of 119 cities of a thousand inhabitants 

 and over, 61 gained in the last year and 58 

 lost in numbers. Only four gained over one 

 thousand each, and five of the cities lost each 

 a thousand or over; but none so much as two 

 thousand. While these are small numbers, 

 they indicate the presence of some active in- 

 fluences wliich are responsible for a great deal 

 of readjustment. Kansas is eminently the 

 commonwealth of comparatively small towns. 

 How emphatically this is the case is apparent 

 from the following table of towns of 1,000 

 people and over, which may or may not sug- 

 gest some explanation of the gain and loss 

 account within its borders: 



No. of 

 Towns. 



Range of Population. 



4 have each from 20,924 to 67,613 inhabitants. 



•8 have each from 11,190 to 18,257 inhabitants. 



12 have each from 5,188 to 9,899 inhabitants. 



40 haA'e each from 2,013 to 4,427 inhabitants. 



55 have each from 1,009 to 1,998 inhabitants. 



Any attempt to trace these evidences of ar- 

 rest in increase, or of decrease, to unfavorable 

 agricultural conditions must fail; because the 

 same tendency appears in manufacturing 

 states. For instance, Massachusetts, which is 

 more than half cities or towns of over 5,000,^ 

 has a disappointing return in its census for 

 1905. Taking into account the increase in 

 the previous decade, a growth in population 

 of 375,000 was expected and predicted. The 

 actual increase is 193,612, barely half the ex- 

 pected gain. 



