154 PRODUCTION 



than to stock-raising, since these lands have small productive 



power when devoted to purely pastoral industries. The regions 



of more equable climatic conditions are already largely occupied 



The leading factor here has been already referred to ; wheat and 



other cereals require about four months of favourable weather 



conditions, 1 while farm animals without considerable outlay in 



equipment, etc., require freedom from climatic extremes during 



the whole year for the successful production of foodstuffs. 2 In 



these remaining regions the average cereal yields may never be great, 



owing to the poorness of the soil and the climatic disabilities, 



but the application of labour-saving machinery in cultivation 



and harvesting may nevertheless enable a margin of profit to arise 



from cereals. Machinery, however, has no place in the ranching 



type of animal industries and very little in the more intensive 



forms. In short, new cereal lands are for the present more abundant 



than new pastoral lands of such a quality as to produce more than 



wool and the lower grades of meat. A greater density of population 



is required to enable animal-rearing industries to proceed beyond 



the ranching system, and an increasing density of agricultural 



population is required as these industries become intensive. Now 



it has been noted that in the production of cattle and sheep the 



pastoral system, pure and simple, without the cultivation of some 



crops for the maintenance and fattening of the animals, is becoming 



a thing of the past. This is owing to the scarcity of land and the 



low yield of meat per acre under this system. A revival of the older 



type may take place with the development of tropical highlands 



in the future, but this will hardly affect the trend of development 



in temperate lands. 



It would appear from evidence collected in Australia, 3 New 

 Zealand, 4 Canada, 5 Siberia, 6 and South America, 7 that once the 

 purely pastoral stage is over, increases in the production of meat, 

 and still more of dairy products, await an increase in the agricul- 

 tural population. In the present stage of development of the 



1 See Unstead, " Climatic Limits of Wheat Cultivation, with Special 

 Reference to North America." Geog. Journal, April, 1912. 



a Moreover, the world's demand for cereals, especially wheat, is more 

 inelastic. Owing to their keeping qualities as compared with animal food- 

 stuffs, cereals can be stored cheaply and transported at leisure an important 

 consideration in remote districts. Cereals can even be held over in part 

 from one season to another, whereas animals often cannot profitably be held 

 over for slaughter from one fattening season (i.e., of summer pastures) to the 

 next. In new countries cereal' cultivation is perhaps the only important 

 industry where enterprising men can start without capital ; the initial outlay 

 is small ; the returns rapid ; and much less care, technical knowledge and 

 social co-operation are required than for animal industries except of the 

 ranching type. 



8 Dominions Commision, Minutes of Evidence, Australia, QQ. 8130-8138. 



4 Dominions Commission, Minutes of Evidence, New Zealand, Evidence 

 of Clifton, Marshall, Edwin Hall, and others. 



5 Canadian Sessional Papers, Vol. IX., 1913. 



6 F. Nansen, Through Siberia, pp. 282-303. 



7 C/. the constant complaints of a labour shortage in Argentina. 



