INTRODUCTION 3 



Nevertheless, in dealing with the question of animal food supplies 

 for human consumption, especially on the side of international 

 trade, it is impossible to disregard the production and the move- 

 ments of cereals that are partly or mainly intended for feeding 

 to cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry, and some estimate of the 

 quantities so consumed is required for imposing and exporting 

 countries, and it is desirable to ascertain some working factor 

 representing their value in terms of meat, dairy produce, etc. 1 



Again, on the side of production, the two great classes of food 

 products, namely cereals, together with potatoes, on the one hand, 

 and animal products on the other, frequently do not make distinct 

 claims upon the land utilised. There is much interlacing under 

 more intensive farming, which is apt to defy clear analysis. Land 

 may at one time be used in producing wheat for direct human 

 consumption, later in producing maize for animal feedstuffs or 

 barley, partly for beer and partly for animal feedstuffs, and 

 finally be laid down to pasture for grazing animals. The reverse 

 has often been observed in new countries in recent times ; rough 

 grazing land, used in the first instance only for pasturing sheep 

 and cattle, has been put under the plough and turned into wheat 

 land, and finally into mixed-farming land under rotation crops. 

 It is difficult to determine in any given year the area of land which 

 will be used for raising human food directly, or for raising it in- 

 directly through animals However, in a period of years in any 

 particular country, though perhaps less so throughout the world, 

 definite movements are to be noted in the areas of land devoted to 

 these two purposes respectively. Even when this question is dis- 

 posed of, there remains the competition upon available agricultural 

 land for the production of wool apart from that of mutton, of fibres 

 such as cotton and flax, and of timber. All of these vary from year 

 to year. There are, moreover, other competing uses of a more 

 limited nature to which land may be put, that vary over longer 

 periods. 2 



To discuss and to make some attempt at disentangling these and 

 similar points is the task that lies at hand. It will be necessary 

 to add much concerning international trade in animal food-products, 

 the technical organisation of agriculture, and standards of con- 

 sumption. 3 It must be added that, while the facts relating to the 

 production and consumption of these products during the last 

 half-century are tolerably complete, enabling some generalisations 

 and conclusions to be made with fair accuracy, concerning future 



1 This varies with the different species of animals, e.g., cattle, sheep, pigs, 

 and with the different breeds of each species, and also, still more, with the age 

 of the animals in the meat-producing class. A detailed discussion of this 

 matter appears in Part IT. Ch. v., below. 



a Namely, the diversion of land from agriculture for public and private 

 purposes. 



8 The subject of marketing, which is of outstanding importance in a study 

 of the relations between producer and consumer, has, by reason of its complex 

 nature and for lack of space been only incidentally referred to in this enquiry. 



