32 PRODUCTION 



As regards the consumption of animal foodstuffs in relation to 

 home production, the various countries and regions of white popula- 

 tion can be broadly divided into three groups ; first the surplus- 

 producing regions together with the elaborating-commercial 

 countries; second, the deficiency countries, which are, as a rule, 

 prominently industrial ; and third, a comparatively small group in 

 which the net surplus or deficiency of these foodstuffs is normally 

 so small as to be negligible. These divisions, however, are not 

 clearly marked, and cross-classification immediately appears when 

 the various kinds of animal foodstuffs are considered separately. 

 Some countries which show a deficiency in one kind are found to 

 have a surplus in another, and this becomes still more striking 

 when the movements of feedstuffs are taken as an equivalent to 

 movements of animal foodstuffs. 1 Thus Denmark and other 

 elaborating-commercial countries show a surplus of animal food- 

 stuffs but are deficient in feedstuffs. 2 With reference to special 

 kinds of animal foodstuffs, Switzerland, for example, is a deficiency 

 country in butter, meat and meat animals, but a surplus country 

 in cheese ; Sweden is deficient in pig-meat, but has a surplus of 

 beef cattle ; a number of countries, such as Holland, which have 

 a surplus of meat, are deficient in oils and fats ; and in some recent 

 years the United States has shown a deficiency in beef with a 

 constant surplus in pig-meat and oils and fats, and similarly Canada 

 has shown a deficiency in butter with a constant surplus in cheese. 

 We have seen that it frequently happens also within the elaborating- 

 commercial group of countries that lower grade animal feedstuffs 

 of special kinds are imported partly for home consumption, while 

 the higher grade local products of the same or of a similar class 

 are exported. This peculiarity is met with outside the elaborating- 

 commercial group. Indeed almost all countries, even those whose 

 deficiency is most marked, export certain specialities in the matter 

 of animal foodstuffs that are not produced elsewhere, and that 

 find, as it were, a world-wide market among the wealthy or among 

 those who have a special taste for such products. 3 



The chief importing countries are Great Britain and Germany 

 in all kinds of animal foodstuffs ; and in addition, in fats and 



1 See table, p. 34, below. Though the method is open to criticism it seems 

 best to take the money values of imports and exports to determine the net 

 balance of animal foodstuffs and feedstuffs in separate countries. This method 

 is sufficiently accurate for the purpose of a general estimate. 



2 When the movements of feedstuffs are considered in conjunction with 

 those of animal foodstuffs, it is found that the classification of countries into 

 surplus and deficiency areas is not seriously affected. In general, a surplus, 

 or a deficiency of animal foodstuffs, is accompanied by a surplus or a deficiencj' 

 of feedstuffs, though the elaborating-commercial countries form an exception ; 

 but even in them the total net imports of feedstuffs are in only one case greater 

 by values than total net exports of animal foodstuffs. 



3 Examples are sufficiently numerous ; Germany exports sausages and 

 hams ; France, Italy and Switzerland special kinds of cheeses ; Belgium, 

 special kinds of rabbits, and Norway condensed milk. The countries men- 

 tioned are otherwise deficient in one or more kinds of animal foodstuffs. 



