98 PRODUCTION 



China is essentially an agricultural country, and concentrated 

 foodstuffs, with the exception of fish, poultry and eggs, enter very 

 little into the dietary of even the wealthier classes. Cereals and 

 other vegetable foodstuffs form the great bulk of the nourishment 

 of the masses. China, indeed, illustrates the operation of a law 

 in agricultural economics, already referred to. 1 Given a certain 

 level of technical science and equipment, as population advances 

 beyond a particular density in relation to the land area upon which 

 it lives, cereal cultivation constantly encroaches upon the avail- 

 able pastoral areas, unless imports of foodstuffs 2 relieve the situa- 

 tion. In the last resort nearly the whole of the available produc- 

 tive land is under crop cultivation. The less fertile hillsides and 

 mountains, instead of being covered with pastures, are devoted to 

 forests and forest plantations, which in the case of China do not 

 supply sufficient timber for the requirements of the population. 3 

 Domestic animals can then be raised only by hand-feeding methods 

 on the products of crop-rotations on the fully occupied and carefully 

 cultivated land. This explains the predominance of " farmyard " 

 animals, such as pigs and poultry, in China, and the absence of the 

 larger pasture-feeding animals, such as cattle, sheep and horses. 4 



The remarkable density of population in China is not only an 

 effective bar to the development of large exports of animal food- 

 stuffs, but is also an obstacle to the necessary technical improve- 

 ments. The present methods of cultivation are almost everywhere 

 primitive, 5 as regards the production of staple articles of food. 

 The only advantage possessed by China in this respect relates to 

 products where much human labour is necessarily employed in 

 care and cultivation. It follows, therefore, that poultty produce, 

 together with rice, tea, and silk, will remain as Chinese specialities. 

 The surplus in poultry produce depends on the methods of cereal 

 cultivation since the needs of the human population tend to be 

 satisfied before the surplus grain is turned over to poultry. 6 Any 

 improvements in the present agricultural methods are likely to 

 be gradual, and if effected, the increased return would tend to be 

 absorbed for some years by capital-charges and by a rise in the 

 present apparently low standard of living. The possible develop- 

 ment of manufacturing industries upon the rich coal-fields of the 



1 See p. 39, above. For a further discussion of this point, see p. below. 



2 These imported foodstuffs may, of course, consist of animal produce, 

 cereals, or animal feedstuffs in different proportions according to local con- 

 ditions. 



3 See A. Little, " The Far East," in the Regional Geography Series, pp. 98, 99. 



4 Owing to the small size of the Chinese holdings, draught animals are not 

 widely used for cultivation, which seems to be generally done by human 

 labour. 



5 See U.S. Daily Commerce Reports, April 29th, 1911, pp. 447-456. 



6 It is, of course, doubtful whether the total output of cereals in China 

 can be materially increased in the future by labour-saving methods ; but 

 the adoption of such methods would set free labour for other productive 

 purposes leading to exports, which might give the country purchasing power 

 to buy imported cereals. 



