160 PRODUCTION 





whole of the local crop for human food. Taking the world as a 

 whole, probably less than one-tenth is consumed as human food. 

 Allowing 10% for seed and wastage and another 10% for industrial 

 uses, there would remain over 70% of the whole annual production 

 available for animal feeding, but of this a certain proportion, not 

 however, very great, is fed to power animals. Probably about 60% 

 of the whole world-crop is generally available as concentrated feed- 

 stuffs for cattle and pigs, that is, for meat production. Obviously, 

 therefore, any increase in maize production, under the present 

 methods of disposing of the crop, favours animal-rearing industries. 



Oats are grown mainly for horses. In agricultural regions, 

 therefore, they are essentially a power-feedstuff, and the land 

 devoted to their cultivation should be deducted from the gross 

 area available for cultivation as a premium necessary to secure 

 horse-power for the cultivation of the rest. 1 A small proportion 

 of the world's oats crop, amounting to about 5%, is used for human 

 food, and a larger, though not any considerable proportion, for 

 feeding to meat-producing animals. More, apparently, is used for 

 this latter purpose in Europe than elsewhere. In view of these 

 conditions, any extension in the production of oats throughout the 

 world cannot be regarded as favourable to meat-producing animal 

 industries, unless this extension enables a greater proportion to 

 be fed to farm animals other than horses. It is interesting to note 

 that the world's oats crop increased according to estimates made, 

 from 3,008 million American bushels in 1895 to 4,672 million 

 American bushels in 1913, that is, more than 50% in eighteen years. 



It is difficult to summarise in precise terms the facts concerning 

 the competition offered by cereal cultivation in temperate regions 

 with animal industries in the same regions. Much depends upon 

 the degree of intensification. Under the simple forms of these 

 two main agricultural industries as practised in newly-developed 

 regions, the competition between them for land seems most obvious, 

 since land taken for cereals can no longer remain free to support 

 pastures ; but even in those regions it is well known that consider- 

 able areas of land are not producing to their full capacity, while 

 occupied for one of these purposes alone, and that the introduction 

 of the other industry in combination with that already established, 

 by utilising more intensive methods, may so far increase total 

 production as to leave the original output of the former more or 

 less unaltered. Moreover, it is quite possible that even when 

 food-animals obtain only a part of a cereal crop, such as barley, 

 grown on a given area of land, the return in feed values may be 

 greater than if the same land were to remain under pasture. Thus 

 a moderate amount of crop cultivation, introduced into a region 

 formerly devoted to raising stock on natural pastures, may not 

 cause any reduction in the number of stock carried, while allowing 

 some margin of grain for sale. In this connection the part played 



1 For a discussion of the effects of the substitution of motor-power for horse- 

 power in agricultural operations, see Part II., Chap, v, below, pp. 269, 260. 



