DEFICIENT INDUSTRIAL COUNTRIES & REGIONS 129 



Britain there were large classes which habitually consumed smaller 

 quantities of animal foodstuffs than they desired, less even than 

 they required on physiological grounds. 



During the period above selected, the United Kingdom, and still 

 more, Great Britain, became, as is well known, more and more a 

 deficiency area in practically all kinds of agricultural produce. 

 The fact that the home supplies of meat were maintained at about 

 the same proportion to total consumption is apt to be deceptive, 

 since there was an increase in the per capita quantities of animal 

 feedstuffs imported, equivalent in reality to imports of meat and 

 other animal foodstuffs ; and correspondingly at the same time, 

 there was a decline in the per capita production of all of such 

 feedstuffs as are produced within the country. 1 Moreover, the 

 production of meat was maintained not only by giving it prefer- 

 ence to dairying, but also by reducing the area devoted to cereals 

 (especially wheat) for home consumption and increasing corres- 

 pondingly the area of meat-producing grass lands. It is worth 

 noting once more in this connection that over one quarter of the 

 wheat imports by weight normally become feedstuffs in the form 

 of milling offals. 



With regard to the separate kinds of meat consumed in both 

 the United Kingdom and Great Britain, mutton and lamb con- 

 stitute a higher proportion than in any country in Europe or in 

 North America, while pig-meat forms a correspondingly lower 

 proportion of the total meat consumed. Not only is this so, but 

 in the period 1900-13 the per capita consumption of mutton and 

 lamb tended to rise, while that of pig -meat tended to fall. These 

 peculiarities in consumption may not be altogether unconnected 

 with the conditions of production within the country, in spite of 

 very large importations which tend to make the total supplies of 

 the different kinds of meat available independent of the limita- 

 tions set by home production. It is remarkable in this connection 

 that among the industrial countries Great Britain has much the 

 highest per capita ratio of sheep and the lowest per capita ratio 

 of pigs. The large area of uplands of calcareous formation, together 

 with the wide use of fodder and root crops for fattening purposes 

 account for the high numbers of the former, while the relatively 

 small quantities of skim-milk arising as a by-product from butter 

 manufacture, and the almost complete absence of home-grown 

 concentrated feedstuffs suitable for pigs, causes the numbers of 

 these animals to be exceptionally low as compared with other 

 countries. 



In recent years the population of Great Britain, as a whole, has 

 become increasingly concentrated in towns, and dependent upon 

 manufacturing industries and trade as a means of livelihood. The 

 extreme deficiency of the country in foodstuffs tends to be increased 



1 The per capita production of oats in the United Kingdom fell from 4-7 

 bushels in 1890 to 3-7 bushels in 1913, that of barley from 2-2 bushels to 1.5 

 bushels, that of hay from -3 to -2 tons. 



