to the square mile is no more crowded than was Denmark when it supported
only 500 palaeolithic people. According to Mr. Woodruff, cultivated land
will produce 1600 times as much food as hunting land. From the time of
the Norman Conquest, for centuries Europe could support no more than 25
to the square mile. To-day Europe supports 81 to the square mile. The
explanation of this is that for the several centuries after the Norman
Conquest her population was saturated. Then, with the development of
trading and capitalism, of exploration and exploitation of new lands, and
with the invention of labour-saving machinery and the discovery and
application of scientific principles, was brought about a tremendous
increase in Europe's food-getting efficiency. And immediately her
population sprang up.

According to the census of Ireland, of 1659, that country had a
population of 500,000. One hundred and fifty years later, her population
was 8,000,000. For many centuries the population of Japan was
stationary. There seemed no way of increasing her food-getting
efficiency. Then, sixty years ago, came Commodore Perry, knocking down
her doors and letting in the knowledge and machinery of the superior food-
getting efficiency of the Western world. Immediately upon this rise in
subsistence began the rise of population; and it is only the other day
that Japan, finding her population once again pressing against
subsistence, embarked, sword in hand, on a westward drift in search of
more room. And, sword in hand, killing and being killed, she has carved
out for herself Formosa and Korea, and driven the vanguard of her drift
far into the rich interior of Manchuria.

For an immense period of time China's population has remained at
400,000,000--the saturation point. The only reason that the Yellow River
periodically drowns millions of Chinese is that there is no other land