CHAPTER XI 



USES OF LAND COMPETITIVE WITH ANIMAL 



INDUSTRIES 



IN view of the existing limitations upon the area of agricultural 

 land throughout the temperate regions of the world, it is neces- 

 sary to consider the extent and nature of the competition for the 

 utilisation of land arising from the demand for various vegetable 

 products, such as cereals and other food crops, fibres arid certain 

 other raw materials for manufacture, and timber. The extent to 

 which animal industries can be developed in the future obviously 

 depends upon two main factors, namely, the total amount of land 

 available for the maintenance of the animals, and the degree of 

 intensification ; the first of these depends largely in its turn upon 

 the areas of productive land left unclaimed, when the minimum 

 necessary output of the above-mentioned materials for direct 

 human consumption or for manufacturing purposes has been 

 secured. It is proposed to deal with each of the different competing 

 uses separately. 



(a) WHEAT AND RYE. 



These two cereals, which are confined to the temperate regions, 

 are grown pre-eminently for human consumption. In Northern 

 and Central Europe, from a statistical point of view, wheat plus 

 rye forms a composite cereal, the consumption of which has a 

 fairly constant per capita ratio. The world's requirements in wheat 

 and rye together tend to be proportional to the increases in the 

 consuming population from year to year. 1 



The demand for these cereals is much less elastic than that for 

 animal foodstuffs, and insists upon being satisfied first. Animal 

 industries must therefore retire if 'the cultivation of wheat and rye 

 exerts pressure upon the area of productive land, unless these 

 industries can adapt themselves so as to be followed intensively 

 in combination with the cultivation of the prime cereals. 



1 Differences and fluctuations in the per capita consumption of wheat 

 plus rye, appear, as might be anticipated, to vary inversely with that of animal 

 foodstuffs. Thus the German peasant consumes more cereals than the 

 German townsman, and the per capita wheat consumption in the United 

 States has risen during the last 50 years with the decline in the per capita 

 meat consumption. 



The increase in general prosperity during the period 1901-1911 was reflected 

 in a rise in the rate of wheat consumption. During that period, according 

 to Rew's estimate (Cd. 7271, p. 377), the per capita wheat acreage in the 

 consuming world rose from -28 acres to -31 acres, and there was also a slight 

 increase in the average yield, 



