THE 
GARDEN YARD 304 
floor; because in such soil plants find all that they 
need. 
To bring it down to the fine point, the French system 
consists of manure, more manure, irrigation, availing 
of every ray of sunlight, and unremitting care. It re- 
quires three years to get the system in good working 
order, and here such intensive cultivation seems un- 
necessary. It shows what man will do in the way of 
developing the possibilities of nature, when by law or 
custom he is debarred from free access to the land, and 
must needs make a very small portion yield a great return. 
We are not in much danger of Malthus’s over-popula- 
tion, and the much-talked-of “pressure of population.” 
Where so tiny a piece of soil can be made to support so 
many and give them a good living, too, it is foolish to 
argue that the cause of poverty is found in the increase 
of population. This country alone could support many 
times the population of the whole world today if natural 
opportunities were free. It has been said that 80,000,- 
000,000 could then be more comfortably supported 
here than 80,000,000 now are. To find the cause of 
most of the poverty, and even crime, in the world, we 
must look beyond the population statistics to the re- 
strictions and monopolies that prevent population from 
providing for its own needs from natural sources. And 
when once you begin to investigate monopolies, you will 
find the mother of them all—Land Monopoly. 
A new sash for use in hot-beds and cold-frames has 
been placed on our market within a year or two, for 
