TEMPERATE SURPLUS-PRODUCING REGIONS 55 



may be regarded as a likely field for the production of animal food- 

 stuffs in such quantities as to allow of a surplus above local 

 requirements in the future. Progress in this direction has hitherto 

 been held in check by inadequate means of internal transport, by 

 concentration on extractive industries (mining, lumbering and 

 salmon fishing) and by the ease and cheapness with which foodstuffs 

 could be brought as return freight from the prairie provinces by 

 rail, or by sea from the United States or distant countries via the 

 Pacific ports. 



Fourthly, there are definite indications that stock-raising and 

 dairying will in the near future be established on vast areas of the 

 prairie lands as a relief to the prevailing cereal-crop system which, 

 in the longer settled districts has clearly been overdone. 1 The 

 difficulties in stock-raising on a large scale in the prairie provinces 

 have been summarised as follows : 2 Want of sufficient shelter and 

 water, summer droughts, shortage of skilled labour, lack of capital 

 for the necessary equipment, and lastly, lack of succulent winter 

 feed. The future of animal industries in the prairie, however, lies 

 rather in small-scale production by individual farmers as comple- 

 mentary to cereal cultivation. 3 There is no reason why, with 

 increasing financial stability and with well-directed government 

 encouragement, considerable progress should not be made in this 

 way. Even if the prairie provinces do no more than supply their 

 own requirements in animal produce, this alone will be a relief to 

 the somewhat over-taxed resources of the North American 

 Continent. 



It is now convenient to consider North America as a whole with 

 reference to the production, consumption and possible surplus of 

 animal foodstuffs. Except in a limited zone extending from 

 Northern Mexico along the Eastern flank of the Central Chains of 

 the Rocky Mountains into South- Western Alberta, and in some 

 parts among these mountains, large-scale cattle ranching has come 

 to an end. It has disappeared in California, and in an extensive 

 belt intermediate between the prairies proper and the High Plains 

 from Texas to Alberta, where it formerly flourished. Similarly 

 also sheep farming is declining. It appears, therefore, that the 

 whole Continent has to rely for its animal foodstuffs more and 

 more upon supplies raised on small and medium-sized farms by 



1 See Dominions Commission, Fifth Interim. Kept. (Cd. 8451), p. 43, where 

 it is stated that the development of live-stock industries in Canada has been 

 slow, owing largely to slipshod and haphazard methods, but " Canada lacks 

 neither the soil nor the climate needed for the speedy development of the 

 live-stock industry in all its forms." Also (Cd. 8458) QQ. 954-969. 



3 Farming in Canada Report of Scottish Agricultural Commission, 1908. 

 Other contributing causes appear to be: (a) the speculative holding of land 

 by absentee owners ; (b) the shortage of capital and the heavy mortgage 

 indebtedness of many farmers necessitating quick returns by " cash " crops. 



3 See Dominions Commission (Cd. 8457), p. 42. " The development of 

 mixed farming in the grain districts and the prospects of the live-stock in- 

 dustries of the Dominion, are matters of growing importance at the moment." 



