156 PRODUCTION 



Inc- 



proportion of waste land, a general unsuitability to animal indus- 

 tries, or a large export trade in cereals and other crops, exist so as 

 to hinder the maximum development of stock-rearing, the optimum 

 may fall towards 10 persons per square mile, and in some cases 

 even lower. This calculation is based on the supposition that the 

 proportion of mining, industrial and other town population to 

 the agricultural population is not above the average. The densities 

 of population in some of the more striking of the newer countries 

 are as follows : Argentina, 7 per square mile; Australia, 1-7; 

 Canada, 2-2 ; New Zealand, 12 ; Western Siberia, 4 ; United 

 States, 34. In the case of Australia, Canada and Western Siberia, 

 there are extensive areas of uninhabitable deserts or frozen wastes. 

 An examination of the above figures shows that the United States 

 is now well above the optimum range suggested above. A com- 

 parison between the density of population in that country and its 

 exports of animal foodstuffs indicates that the latter were greatest 

 when the former stood between 20 and 25. The United States 

 constitutes an exceptional case, because the average fertility of 

 the soil has been high and the methods of exploitation very effective. 

 None of the other regions taken above has as yet reached the 

 optimum range, except New Zealand, which again is exceptional, 

 owing to its great suitability for, and its great specialisation in 

 animal industries. For New Zealand the optimum is probably 

 20, or even more, persons per square mile, while that for Australia, 

 Canada and Western Siberia is probably not much above 10, unless 

 a much greater share of the energies of the respective populations 

 is devoted to animal industries than at present. 



Any marked progress beyond the existing stage in the application 

 of intensive methods, such as a more extensive cultivation of fodder 

 crops, the use of fertilisers (imported, if necessary), improvements 

 in the breeds of stock, and the spread of co-operative methods of 

 production, will tend to raise the optimum density of population 

 in the connection under study. Under this head, also, must be 

 classed any increase in the net imports of feedstuffs that cannot 

 readily be grown locally. Strictly speaking, some deduction should 

 be made for these imports in determining net exports of animal 

 foodstuffs, since the existence of such imports really means that 

 for animal-rearing purposes the area of the country is practically 

 extended by the acreage devoted to their production in the sup- 

 plying countries. On the other hand, any reduction in the 

 proportion of " ready-money " crops in the exports of the newer 

 countries, may cause the release of land in them for animal indus- 

 tries and thereby lead to a raising of the optimum level of population. 



NOTE TO CHAPTER X. 



It is convenient to take lib of meat as equivalent to lib of cheese and to 

 lb. of butter. This equation represents with sufficient accuracy the average 

 pre-war proportion of money values, and makes it possible to reduce the 

 exports of these three principal items of animal foodstuffs to a common 

 denominator for the purpose of comparison between different countries. 



