PREFACE 



THIS work is the result of investigations conducted at the London 

 School of Economics, with some small assistance from works in 

 the British Museum Reference Library, between September,. 1915 

 and September, 1918. Owing to the fact that it has been written 

 entirely during the war period, it is not unnatural that the second 

 part, dealing with consumption, should perhaps be coloured in 

 some measure by the circumstances of food restrictions under 

 which it was written. It is hoped that the bias thus given is not 

 sufficiently marked to detract from the permanent value of this 

 part of the work. Elsewhere war conditions have been largely 

 ignored. 



I was led to select the subject of animal foodstuffs for certain 

 special reasons. I was brought up on a dairy farm in New Zealand, 

 where, after leaving school, I spent several years in farm work ; 

 and for a colonial, the questions concerning the production of, and 

 the markets for, animal produce loom large on the horizon. More- 

 over, adequate supplies of the proper kinds of foodstuffs are of such 

 vital importance to any nation, and the British home-produced 

 supplies so strikingly deficient, that a subject such as that which 

 forms the title of this thesis has an added fascination for Empire 

 citizens of colonial origin. 



So far as I am aware, the questions concerning animal foodstuffs 

 have not been made the subject of any lengthened systematic 

 investigation. An attempt has been made in this inquiry to survey 

 quite impartially the productive resources of all important parts 

 of the world in respect of animal foodstuffs. This has involved 

 a great deal of detailed research. Throughout this part, and in- 

 deed throughout the whole of the investigation, the close relation- 

 ship between animal foodstuffs and concentrated feedstuff s has 

 been insisted upon. The main conclusion drawn has been that 

 the supplies of animal foodstuffs tend at present, and are still more 

 likely in the near future, to be deficient. 



This has led to an enquiry into the economic position of animal 

 industries in agriculture, into their costs of production, and into 

 the economics of consumption in relation to production in respect 

 of them. All these have been studied in their bearing upon future 

 movements. No distinct attempt, however, has been made to 

 deal with the subject of marketing which arises in this connection 

 since the field appeared too wide and the questions too complex 

 and technical for adequate discussion. 



