GENERAL SURVEY OF THE SOURCES 23 



present be utilised extensively, since only a very small part of the 

 feedstuff s consumed by domestic animals in the temperate regions 

 comes from them. 



Not only are wages high in all the newer countries, but they 

 tend to rise with social progress. Since also these countries con- 

 tribute an ever-increasing proportion of the world's supply of animal 

 products, and their share becomes more indispensable, the rate of 

 wages paid in them tends to reflect itself in the world-prices for 

 these products. In the older, more densely-populated countries 

 of Europe there is a distinct tendency for the wages of agricultural 

 workers to rise in sympathy with factory wages, but not to the same 

 extent as in the newer countries, owing largely to a much lower 

 value of output per worker in the former. If meat-production and 

 dairying could be conducted on the more modern intensive lines 

 with little human labour, the results might be different. Although 

 in dairying the separator has done much and the milking-machine 

 promises to do more in the direction of lightening labour, it is true 

 that, without considerable human skill and care and labour, the 

 high-grade food products of animal origin now in demand 

 throughout the world, cannot be supplied. 



The sources of production may now be considered by groups 

 with some detail as regards special articles. In this connection 

 animal feedstuffs have also to be included. Though the prime 

 consideration is production, the destinations of the special products 

 for consumption purposes require to be noted in discussing world- 

 trade. 



At the outset it may be stated as approximately true that the 250 

 odd millions of people of Western Europe, 1 are unable to obtain a 

 sufficient supply, in keeping with their standards of life, of either 

 cereals or animal products from the land upon which they live. 

 During the last thirty years the centre of cereal production in 

 Europe has slowly migrated eastwards, 2 pointing to a growing 

 insufficiency in Western Europe, while animal-food products have 

 been brought by sea to the ports of the same western half in ever- 

 increasing quantities during the same period. In respect of this 

 insufficiency of home production, especially in animal-food pro-- 

 ducts, 3 Great Britain, as is well known, is in a more extreme position 



1 For the purposes of this discussion Western Europe includes everything 

 west of the meridian of 18 E. long., i.e,. those countries with a predominant 

 industrial organisation where also the climatic conditions are influenced by 

 the A tlantic. Eastern Europe (to be referred to frequently later) includes there- 

 fore Russia with Poland, the Balkan region, Hungary, and the province of 

 East Prussia in Germany. In these countries the climatic conditions are 

 essentially continental except in the south-western half of the Balkan 

 Peninsula, where they are Mediterranean. 



2 U.S. Dept. Agiic., Bureau of Statistics, Bulletin 68, p. 14. 



3 The value of animal-food products imported into the United Kingdon is 

 greater than that of cereals. In 1913 (U.K. Statistical Abstract) the value 

 of the total imports of the former was approximately ^100 millions, while 

 that of the latter was only approximately 85 millions, but this figure includes 

 items for animal feedstuffs with a probable total value of not less than 30 



