42 PRODUCTION 



of animal foodstuffs, it makes all the difference whether the increased 

 area taken for crops is used more particularly for producing food- 

 crops for human consumption, or for producing crops such as 

 maize, barley and roots of which a considerable part, or the whole 

 of the produce, is used as feedstuffs for food animals. The en- 

 croachment of food and industrial crops upon lands formerly 

 devoted to the rearing of- animals has been, of course, most noticeable 

 in Europe and North America. The fact that the general ratios of 

 food animals to the population declined in both these continents 

 in the period 1901-11 indicates that these animals lost relatively 

 rather than gained by the process. Among the different kinds 

 of animals, pigs and poultry gain as compared with the rest, 

 whether the result of the process is to increase or to diminish the 

 total crop produce (exclusive of grass) available for food animals, 

 because these are reared independently of pastures ; and dairy 

 cattle gain at the expense of pure beef cattle, because when 

 pastures are reduced and crop produce replaces grass, the former 

 animals become more profitable. The most marked feature in the 

 recent decline in food animals, is the decline in sheep ratios in all 

 the four regions taken above except Australasia, where the tendency 

 to decline in the period 1901-11 is masked by the consequences of 

 the drought in the former year. 



Not only the advance of population in the consumimg world, 

 but general economic progress as well, making fresh demands upon 

 the land available, has brought about a relative decline in the 

 output of animal produce. As there have been some differences 

 among producing countries in the mode of these changes, it is now 

 convenient to consider them separately and in greater detail. 



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