CHAPTER VIII 



ANIMAL INDUSTRIES IN THE PROGRESS 

 OF AGRICULTURE 



IT has been shown in Chapter II., above, that there has been a 

 decline in recent years in the numbers of food-animals through- 

 out the world, relative to the white population. The resulting 

 meat-shortage would have been more keenly felt had it not been 

 for improvements in the breeds and the general quality of the 

 animals, which have led to a greater annual production of animal 

 foodstuffs per unit enumerated. 



In Western Europe, which contains over one-third of the world's 

 white population, and probably consumes about one-half of the 

 world's supplies of animal foodstuffs, the number of food -animals 

 expressed in " cattle units " increased at a slower rate than the 

 population in the period 1900 to 191.2 ; the latter increased by 

 10-6%, while the former increased by but 9-5%. In the same 

 area dairy cattle rose from 3346 million in 1900 to 33-94 million 

 in 1912, other cattle from 31-01 million to 33-32 million, and pigs 

 from 36-7 million to 45-2 million, while sheep declined remarkably 

 from 67-65 million to 57-85 million. 1 An examination of these 

 totals shows that between .1900 and 1912 the numbers of " other 

 cattle " (calves and beef cattle) in Western Europe increased by 

 about 7% and those of dairy cattle by about 1 J%. This does not 

 necessarily mean that the output of beef increased more rapidly 

 than that of milk ; the reveise was probably the case, on the whole. 

 In the same period the table shows that the number of sheep in 

 Western Europe declined sharply, while that of pigs increased at a 

 marked rate. The great decline in the numbers of sheep taken in 

 conjunction with the comparatively small increase in the numbers 

 of all cattle, indicates perhaps that Western Europe has reached a 

 kind of saturation point in the matter of pasture-fed live stock. The 

 remarkable absolute decline in the numbers of sheep is due to the 

 fact that these animals have been driven from their former pastures by 

 the advance of crop cultivation, and in some cases by afforestation. 

 Pigs have increased in numbers relative to the population because 

 they are better suited to the more intensive methods of farming and 

 because concentrated feedstuffs could be imported in increasing 

 quantities. 



1 For certain countries the enumerations foi the years nearest to 1900 and 

 1912 respectively have been taken in those cases where no figures are available 

 for those years. Italy, Portugal and Spain have been omitted because of 

 the absence of any distinction between dairy and other cattle in official 

 statistics. The omission of these countries does not affect the totals for com- 

 parative purposes. 



