178 PRODUCTION 



value. This has happened especially in new countries, and the agri- 

 cultural industry in the districts so affected has been thereby 

 loaded with excessive charges in the costs of production that have 

 resulted in some cases in checking temporarily its expansion. 1 



With regard to the influence of land values upon the prices of 

 animal foodstuffs, the chain of causation seems to be as follows * 

 the pressure of the increasing demand for agricultural produce has 

 caused a distinct upward trend in land values, so that large quanti- 

 ties of beef and mutton can no longer be produced upon free or 

 very cheap productive land in the new countries ; the prices of these 

 meats upon the international market are, therefore, no longer 

 controlled by the competition of vast supplies produced cheaply 

 under these conditions, and show in consequence a distinct upward 

 movement ; incidentally the meat-consuming populations have to 

 rely more upon pig-meat produced upon high-priced land and less 

 upon beef and mutton for their meat supplies. Finally, since 

 dairying is in some measure an alternative to the production of 

 meat in live-stock farming, and as an industry has also felt the up- 

 ward movement in land values, the prices of dairy products have 

 also risen, but not to the same extent for reasons that have already 

 been indicated. 



With regard to the labour costs, it is to be noted that the limita- 

 tion of land area and the consequent rise in land values has made 

 it necessary to attempt more intensive methods of animal hus- 

 bandry, which in their turn make greater demands for human 

 labour in proportion to the output. Except in dairying the intro- 

 duction of machinery has not been rapid enough in mixed farming 

 to make it possible to produce a given quantity of animal foodstuffs 

 with the same amount of labour on a small area by intensive 

 methods as on a larger one by extensive methods. Now in recent 

 years the change towards intensive methods has been more notice- 

 able in animal industries than in other branches of agriculture. 

 The general advances made in the breeds and quality of meat- 

 producing animals have made more attention necessary to the 

 tending and feeding of them. All such developments involve a 

 greater expenditure of human labour and thought, more technical 

 knowledge, and a greater degree of organisation. 



Not only, therefore, is a larger amount of labour necessary under 

 intensive animal husbandry than under the open grazing system, 

 but also the nature of the work is such that a higher wage for 

 labourers and a higher remuneration for farmers must be forth- 



1 Western Canada is a case in point. In British Columbia " the land values 

 are generally considered to be as high now as they should be at a much later 

 stage of development of the Province." U.S. Daily Commerce Reports, 

 April 9th, 1913, p. 161. 



Compare also the following quotation : ' This apparent anomaly between 

 rents and productiveness in some instances is caused by the pressure of popu- 

 lation upon land, by land speculation, and a lack of realisation by the tiller of 

 the soil of the relation of rent to net profits." U.S. Dept. Agric. Bureau of 

 Statisitcs, Bulletin 48, p. 10. 



