Geography of Ohio 
187 
declined 1.3 per cent; the percentages of decrease in particular 
counties were large: Brown, 12.1; Crawford, 11.3; Jackson, 14.3; 
Meigs, 13.2; Monroe, 13.8; Paulding, 17.4; Pike, 13.5; Vinton, 
14.6; Van Wert, 10.4. Only one of these counties, Crawford, 
gained in gross population; this gain was due to the growth of its 
only city, Bucyrus. 
In certain other counties a marked gain was made in rural 
population: Athens, 20.1 per cent; Belmont, 31.1; Cuyahoga, 
29.6; Guernsey, 13.3; Jefferson, 47.5; Mahoning, 13.8; Summit, 
20.1. Each of these counties contains one or more prosperous 
cities. The population growth of these cities in the particular 
counties is as follows: Athens county, Athens, 78.1 per cent; 
Belmont county, Martins Ferry, 17.6, Bellaire, 30.6; Cuyahoga 
county, Cleveland, 46.9; Guernsey county, Cambridge, 37.4; 
Jefferson county, Steubenville, 56; Mahoning county, Youngs- 
town, 76.2; Summit county, Akron, 61.6, Barberton, 116.1. 
This urban activity increased the demand for farm products, 
which may partly account for the gain in rural population. In the 
vicinity of the larger cities intensive methods of agriculture are 
being practised. 
Much of the central Mississippi basin during the last decade 
has shown very slight, if any, gain in population; many of the 
states have not shown any increase because agriculturally, under 
the present methods of farming, they have been fully exploited, 
and the industrial readjustments have only begun to develop 
manufacturing centers which in time will be large cities. Were 
it not for the city of Chicago, Illinois would now be in the stag- 
nant class; omitting Chicago, the state has made no growth since 
1900. 
Urban density in Ohio. The effect of urban concentration 
appears in the rapid growth of certain cities during the last dec- 
ade. In New York state the increase of urban population was 
42 per cent, and of rural population 2 per cent; in Massachusetts 
the urban population increased 32 per cent and the rural 4 per 
cent; in Ohio the urban 48 per cent, while the rural declined 1.3 
per cent. There is something significant in the figures of these 
three states. Industrially, if the growth of urban population is 
an index, Ohio leads these states in the progress made from 1900 
to 1910. Ohio has five cities of over 100,000 in population: 
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Toledo, and Dayton. There 
