USES OF LAND 161 



by poultry, as described elsewhere, in the world's supplies of animal 

 foodstuffs, should be boine in mind. Since poultry are largely 

 fed, especially in the chief cereal regions, on the less marketable 

 grades of wheat, barley and maize, their products form an important 

 contribution to the supplies of animal foodstuffs, as soon as cereal 

 cultivation appears. 



It seems, therefore, that within certain limits, the competition 

 between cereals and food-producing animals for the occupation of 

 land depends more on the methods of utilising the land than upon 

 the extent to which the former are introduced. It is not surprising 

 that this competition should have been felt most in the United 

 States, because there the customary methods of agriculture have 

 been least intensive, but it is significant that American agricultural 

 authorities are convinced that a change of methods could lead to 

 an enormously increased production of animals, while maintaining 

 the necessary level of crop-production. Beyond certain limits, 

 however, it is impossible to increase on a restricted area either the 

 production of food crops or the rearing of animals without sacri- 

 ficing the other in some measure, unless raw materials, such as 

 feedstuffs and fertilisers are imported heavily. In point of fact, 

 many of the countries of Western Europe have, during the last 

 three decades, given animal industries an increasing preference 

 to the production of wheat. 



It is fairly clear in the main that the rapid increase in the white 

 populations of the world and the general advance in the standards 

 of living 1 have caused serious competition to arise temporarily 

 at any rate between food crops and food-producing animals, though 

 the food crops are not altogether confined to cereals such as wheat 

 and rye. This competition tends to be accentuated by the growing 

 demand for fibres and for timber, both of which, however, for 

 reasons of economy, are likely to be produced more and more under 

 cultivation rather than by the uncontrolled forces of nature. 



The rapid increase in the area cultivated has involved a corres- 

 ponding increase in the production of oats and other feedstuffs for 

 horses, which will continue unless power-driven agricultural 

 machinery comes more widely into use. This, however, appears 

 quite likely. It is indeed possible that the application of motor- 

 power to such machinery will be sufficiently rapid in the near 

 future to make a reduction possible in the quantities of horse 

 feedstuffs grown throughout the world. In any case, the present 

 rapid development of motor traction for vehicles in the agricultural 

 districts as well as in the towns, seems likely to have an effect in 

 this direction, and is therefore indirectly favourable to animal- 



1 There has been some tendency to substitute wheat for rye, barley and 

 even rice as an article of food in different parts of the world, so that the 

 number of wheat-eaters has increased faster than the world's white popula- 

 tion. Thus the competitition above described has been further increased, 

 since wheat, owing to its somewhat lighter yield and its more exacting re- 

 quirements in soil and climate, makes greater demands upon the world's 

 temperate agricultural resources than these other cereals. 



