TEMPERATE SURPLUS-PRODUCING REGIONS 63 



pastures are rich, the capacity of Uruguay for meat production is 

 for the present, therefore, more or less limited. 



The total area is only about 72,000 square miles and live-stock 

 figures show a relatively high density owing to the uniformly 

 sufficient rainfall l and the small proportion of the area devoted 

 to cereals. 2 Uruguay is a specialised pastoral country and has 

 little importance as an exporter of animal feedstuffs. The per 

 capita ratios of cattle and of sheep, both of which have been 

 extraordinarily high, rose somewhat between 1900 and 1908, but 

 by 1916 had declined noticeably. 



Pigs, which numbered about 200,000 in 1912, contribute as yet 

 nothing of importance in the export trade. The figures used above 

 for 1916 are taken from Messrs. Weddel & Co/s Review of the Frozen 

 Meat Trade for 1916. If these are accepted, it is found 

 that since 1908 both cattle and sheep have declined in Uruguay, 

 the latter to less than half. These changes form a striking parallel 

 with the similar changes in Argentina, and may be attributed 

 mainly to the same great cause, namely, overslaughtering conse- 

 quent on the rise in the prices of stock since 1908. 



There has been considerable progress as in Argentina in the qualit}' 

 of live stock, through the introduction of pure-bred animals, 3 so 

 that the food-producing value of each unit enumerated has risen. 

 It is not surprising, therefore, when these facts are considered 

 together, to find that there has been a great increase in the exports 

 of meat and meat products. The total of these items, including 

 live animals reduced to terms of dressed meat, rose from 39,000 

 tons in 1901 to over 78,000 tons in 1911, or more than doubled in 

 ten years. 



In recent years in the export trade in cattle products there has 

 been a tendency to substitute frozen and chilled beef for jerked 

 beef, and even for meat extracts, while similarly frozen mutton 

 has tended to displace tallow. The establishment of large freezing 

 works at Monte Video has contributed to these changes. 



With regard to the future, the country may be expected to in- 

 crease its output of meat and perhaps its exports at a moderate 

 rate for some time to come. The population is not large, neither 

 is it increasing rapidly, and it is possible that the per capita meat 

 consumption will decline to some extent. On the other hand, the 

 area is limited, and unless fodder and fattening crops are more 

 extensively cultivated, or are imported, the surplus meat produce 

 available cannot increase much beyond certain definite limits. 



1 U.S. Year Book of Agriculture, 1913, p. 359 : " A large part of the 

 country is well watered and naturally suited to stock raising, which is the 

 principal industry." 



2 The chief cereals cultivated are wheat, maize and linseed, but not much 

 in excess of local requirements. The total net exports of these three articles 

 taken together amounted to about 42,000 tons on an average of the years ' 

 1910-12. 



3 Koebel, " Uruguay," 1911, pp. 254-264. 



