490 [Part IV, URBAN POPULATION DENSITIES

THIS branch of Geography does not yet seem to have received adequate quantitative study. The figures of density of population of cities sometimes published in reference books are practically meaningless. Arbitrary administrative decisions as to how much rural or semi-rural land is to be included within the city boundaries may completely alter the results. Fruitful study of urban population densities can only be made by drawing a map of the city and plotting, either by stippling or shading, the densities of population by the smallest component areas (Census Tracts or adminis-trative sub-divisions) for which data are available. The task is laborious and the results lacking in precision; but its application to a number of cities in different parts of the world and at different dates for which the evidence could be obtained has yielded some very interesting preliminary results. The student of urban development will be greatly dependent upon Professor Griffith Taylor's Urban Geography (14) and the great learning therein contained. But this book is essentially designed to discuss qualitative criteria for ascertaining the various stages in the development of a town, with special emphasis upon the small town. Quantitative analysis of densities, with par-ticular reference to great metropolitan areas, is hardly dealt with in i