CHAPTER X 



AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY IN RELATION 

 TO THE PRODUCTION OF ANIMAL 

 FOODSTUFFS 



THE extent to which labour-saving machinery can be used in 

 the production of foodstuffs, especially those of animal 

 origin, is of the greatest importance, in view of the relatively 

 high labour cost of these products. Moreover, in certain new 

 countries, it appears that the shortage of farm labour arising from 

 the sparse population actually keeps production below the level 

 possible from the resources of occupied land. 



Whether the large industrialised farm will become general in 

 the future is a doubtful question. Certainly on such farms 

 machinery could be used more effectively than is the case on the 

 ordinary private farm ; but it does not seem likely that rapid 

 changes will be made in the direction of organising such under- 

 takings in the near future. 



In considering the production of animal foodstuffs it will be 

 recognised that the application of machinery to crop-cultivation 

 has a favourable effect in two ways, first, by making the production 

 of cereals for human consumption easier and cheaper, and thereby 

 leaving more energies and resources available for animal-raising ; 

 and second, by making the supplies of animal feedstuffs and fodders 

 cheaper and more abundant. Moreover, so far as steam or motor 

 power is used for land cultivation, a corresponding number of 

 horses can be dispensed with, and the feed materials they consume 

 be devoted to raising food-animals. 



In animal industries pure and simple, the introduction of 

 machinery has not proceeded far towards relieving human labour, 

 except in treating the products. The rearing of food-producing 

 animals still requires considerable human care and skill. 1 In stall- 

 feeding some machinery is effectively used in preparing and weigh- 

 ing the feed materials, and in dairying milking machines are now 

 in use, but by no means generally so. 



The greatest recent advances in the utilisation of machinery in 

 animal industries are connected with the handling of meat animals 

 and meat products in freezing works and during storage and trans- 

 port, and with the treatment of milk in butter and cheese factories. 

 Both these developments have resulted in a great saving of human 

 labour and in a greater transportability of perishable animal food- 

 stuffs. The separator, in particular, has greatly reduced the 

 labour required in the production of butter and has at the same 



1 It has been observed that a relative decline in the agricultural population 

 of a given area is possible with the more extended use of machinery, " but the 

 query is raised whether this rule applies in the same degree to meat-animal 

 production." U.S. Dept. Agric. Bureau of Crop Estimates Report 109. 

 p. 22. 



