164 PRODUCTION 



Germany represents the extreme case of a country that normally 

 grows potatoes in excess of the requirements of direct human con- 

 sumption. It is estimated that in that country only about 27% 

 of the annual crop is usually consumed as human food, while about 

 38% is fed to live stock. 1 Pigs are commonly fattened on potatoes 

 in Germany, just as they are on imported feedstuffs in Denmark, 

 and on maize in North America. In all important potato-growing 

 countries, however, some part of the crop, consisting of the inferior 

 grades, is fed to stock in all years, and a larger part in years of 

 abundant harvests. The high average yield in weight per acre 

 of potatoes may be regarded as causing any extension in the culti- 

 vation of potatoes to be somewhat favourable to animal indus- 

 tries ; directly by furnishing a valuable fattening material in the 

 surplus crop, and indirectly by reducing the area in particular 

 countries and throughout the world, that requires to be assigned 

 to the prime cereals in order to supply starchy foodstuffs for 

 human consumption. 



It is to be noted that, owing to their normal low value in pro- 

 portion to bulk, potatoes do not usually, except in special cases, 

 enter into international trade, so that each country depends largely 

 for its supplies upon local production. By the principle of sub* 

 stitution, therefore, a small potato harvest in any particular 

 country in a given }^ear will tend to cause larger imports of cereals 

 and concentrated feedstuffs into that country. 



In one way, however, potato cultivation in recent years has 

 resulted in direct competition with the production of human food 

 supplies and therefore also with animal industries. Large quanti- 

 ties of the German potato crop in particular, previous to the year 

 1914, were used for the manufacture of starch and industrial 

 alcohol. Though these industries have not developed to any great 

 extent in other countries, they grew rapidly in Germany with the 

 increase in the world's demand for the above products, and there 

 is a distinct possibility that in the near future a larger proportion 

 of the world's potato crop will be consumed in these ways. 



Unless such commercial uses of potatoes increase enormously 

 in the near future, it appears that in view of the ratio of consuming 

 population to food-producing land, actual and possible, any in- 

 crease in the cultivation of potatoes in those countries adapted to 

 the crop would have a favourable effect upon the production of 

 animal foodstuffs, especially of fats. 



(d) SUGAR BEET. 



This crop has risen to a place of marked importance during the 

 last fifty years in a rich agricultural belt of Europe extending 



sitates the extensive addition of protein, chiefly in the form of meats, milk 

 and cheese, to complete the dietary. The proteid by-products of milling 

 are fed to animals and poultry, and are thus consumed later in more accept- 

 able forms, though not without considerable loss of food values. 

 1 From figures given in T. H. Middleton's Report (Cd. 8305). p. 40. 



