TEMPERATE SURPLUS-PRODUCING REGIONS 59 



essential by expert authorities for the production of first-class meat. 



A fourth factor that has contributed to the maintenance of meat 

 exports, while the numbers of meat-producing animals have de- 

 clined, is that slaughterings have evidently exceeded the normal 

 rate of increase both of cattle and of sheep. This means that the 

 numbers of breeding-stock have suffered unduly in order to feed 

 the export trade x ; part of the exports of meat have been made, as 

 it were, from capital instead of from income. Obviously this pro- 

 cess could not continue without ultimately reducing the quantities 

 of meat available for export. It was apparently most obvious 

 in the period 1912-14 ; since that time the numbers of cattle and 

 sheep have shown a tendency to recover. 



Fifth the increase in the numbers of pigs, both absolutely and 

 per capita, shown in the table above, has supplied the local market 

 with additional supplies of meat ; and, though pig-meat is not 

 exported in appreciable quantities, has naturally led to an increase 

 in the exportable surplus of beef and of mutton above the figures 

 at which it would otherwise have stood. 



Of the five factors above described, the first three and the last 

 will, if continued, have a positive effect in increasing the export 

 surplus ; while the fourth, if similarly continued, will lead to a 

 serious curtailment of the surplus, though its immediate result 

 has been to increase it. Reference to Table A, above, shows that 

 there was a general decline in the ratios of " cattle units " to popu- 

 lation throughout the whole period 1895 to 1914, but that this 

 decline became very marked between 1911 and 1914. However, in 

 a country such as Argentina, where the ratios of live stock and of 

 productive land to the population are unusually high, this decline 

 is not so serious as it would be in a country where the same ratios 

 are relatively low. The proportion of the total output of meat 

 required for local consumption is small. The changes in the total 

 numbers of food-producing animals and in their productivity per 

 unit are of greater significance in estimating the future tendencies ; 

 and, though the numbers of cattle and sheep in Argentina reached 

 a low ebb in 1914, there are reasons for anticipating that the more 

 recent upward movement will continue. 2 



In spite of a somewhat rapid increase in the population in recent 



1 The British Consul at Buenos Aires in his Report for the year 1912-13 

 pointed out that the stocks of animals raised in Argentina had not kept pace 

 with the meat exports. " It is clear that the time has come for replenishing 

 the herds by the acquisition of store cattle" (p. 40). See also U.S. Dept. 

 Agric., Farmers' Bulletin, 581, where it is stated that in the period 1908-12 

 the increase in cows slaughtered was 171%, while that for steers was only 

 62% (p. 34). " The demand for an increase in the Argentine meat output 

 has had the effect of restricting the natural increase of the herds " (p. 40). 

 See also U.S. Dept. Agric., Bureau of Crop Estimates, Report, 109, p. 26. 



2 See U.S. Dept. Agric., Bureau of Crop Estimates, Report 109, p. 20. 

 " Eventually high prices of cattle, the extensive raising of alfalfa, and ample 

 facilities for slaughtering and exporting will lead, it would seem, to a great 

 expansion of the beef-producing industry in Argentina." 



