GENERAL SURVEY OF THE SOURCES 



29 



The items for Group III. countries show a somewhat different 

 arrangement : 



The items for Group IV. countries show a similar arrangement 

 to these for Group III. countries, but the imports of animal food- 

 stuffs bear a much higher proportion to the total production among 

 the former than among the latter on an average, and the exports 

 of animal foodstuffs are insignificant, so that home consumption 

 absorbs practically the whole of the incomings from all sources in 

 Group IV. countries. The items thus appear as follows : 



1. Total production of animal 

 foodstuffs, containing net 

 imports of feedstuff s. 



2. Imports of animal food- 

 stuffs for home consumption 



1. Exports of animal food- 

 stuffs and live animals. 



2. Home consumption of 

 animal foodstuffs. 



Except in the case of Great Britain, imports of animal foodstuffs 

 from foreign sources form but a small proportion of the total 

 consumption. Hence the foreign trade in these commodities is 

 little indication of the actual relations between production and 

 consumption throughout the world. 2 The density of the population 

 in relation to productive area in temperate countries determines 

 chiefly to what extent the individual country shows a deficit or a 

 surplus in animal foodstuffs ; but other factors, such as special 

 climatic conditions and the proportions of the productive area 

 devoted to field crops for export, also enter. Of the typical countries 

 the United States with a moderate net surplus of animal foodstuffs, 

 but a large area under field crops, has approximately 3^ hectares 

 of productive area per head of the population. 3 Denmark which 

 imports feedstuffs heavily and makes comparatively large exports 

 of finished animal produce, approx. 1, and Great Britain, which 

 imports finished animal produce in great quantities to supplement 

 home production in addition to correspondingly large quantities 



1 This would, of course, include live animals sold out of the country. 



a It has been estimated that only about l/13th of the world's meat produc- 

 tion, for example, enters into international trade. See Note, page 1, above. 



3 Using the figures given in the Annuaire Statistique A^ricote, 1915, Inter- 

 national Agric. Institute. 



