Geography of Ohio 
183 
Northwestern Ohio, It was not till toward the middle of the 
last century that travel in the northwest part of the state became 
convenient. That was the last section to be settled, and, as a 
result, the centers of population elsewhere in the state had a 
decided start. Later, railways connecting the Atlantic seaboard 
and the west added to the prestige of Toledo. The extreme north- 
west corner of Ohio profited also by nearness to Michigan, the 
southern part of which was settled much earlier. These com- 
munities wished an outlet to the east, hence a railroad was built 
in 1836 from southern Michigan across the corner of Ohio to Lake 
Erie, and connected there with boat-freighting. For a long time 
Toledo made a very meagre growth, and Sandusky also grew 
slowly. The Miami and Erie canal made Toledo a shipping point 
for goods to and from the East, via Lake Erie. 
The agricultural possibilities of the northwestern part of the 
state were early recognized, but the area was not attractive to 
the pioneer; it was famous chiefly for its marshes. To turn these 
marshes into farmland required great labor; the pioneer had not 
the conveniences for constructing effective ditches. For this 
reason the northwest part of the state did not attract the early 
farmers. 
DENSITY OF POPULATION 
What is over-population. All may not agree on an answer 
to the question, when is an area over-populated? Some hold that 
an area is over-populated when the inhabitants cannot get a 
normal amount of food; others, that over-population is reached 
long before that condition of stringency arises. We are under 
biological contract with destiny to make constant progress as a 
race ; keeping the species in existence, is no guarantee of advance- 
ment. From this viewpoint, an area may be over-populated 
before its inhabitants cease to be properly nourished. When the 
struggle for physical existence monopolizes the attention of any 
part of the human race, that part cannot rise to higher planes. 
So long as man is becoming progressively more and more the 
master of his environment, the race is advancing. Poorly-fed 
peoples have never performed great engineering feats. Codes of 
ethics have never been evolved by starved nations. It takes pro- 
lificness in all ways to insure moral as well as material progress. 
