ltural and other rural
labour which shall, partially, at any rate, compensate for the
diminished demand for such kinds of labour in the more advanced
industrial communities. For although a large number of the industries
subsidiary to agriculture, the making of tools, waggons, gates,
fencing, etc., have now passed from the country to the towns, while
the economies of machinery and improved cultivation have advanced so
far that it is alleged that three men working on soil of average
quality can raise food for one thousand, still the growth of
population with a constantly rising standard of material consumption
seems likely to prevent any net diminution in the proportion of labour
engaged upon the soil in the industrial world. So long as modern
methods of production and consumption in civilised countries require
an ever-increasing quantity of raw materials, it would seem _a priori_
unlikely that a smaller proportion of the whole industry of the world
should be devoted to agricultural and other extractive industries, and
a larger amount to the manufacturing and distributive industries,
where the chief economies of machine-production are so largely
applied.

Since this growth of town population is quicker in the advanced
industrial communities, slower in the less advanced, so it may well be
the case that, in the countries which are but slightly and indirectly
affected by modern industry, it does not exist at all. There exist,
however, no satisfactory data upon which a judgment may be formed upon
this point.

Sec. 4. The effects of this concentration of population upon the
character and life of the people are multifarious. For convenience in
grouping facts, these effects may be considered in relation to (_A_)
physical health, (_B_) intelligence, (_C_) morals, though it will be
evident that the influences placed under these respective heads act
and react upon one another in many intricate and important ways.

(_A_) The best test of the effect of town life upon the population is
afforded by a comparison of the rates of mortality of town and country
population respectively.

DEATH-RATE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY DISTRICTS OF ENGLAND, 1851-90.[275]

--------+------------------------------+-------------------
| Annual Deaths per 1000. | Deaths in Town
+----------+--------+----------+ Districts to
Years. | England | | | 100 Deaths in
| and | Town. | Country. | Country i