THE RATE OF CONSUMPTION 211 



from all other branches of that industry that utilise milk as the 

 first-grade material. Each of these competing sources gains its 

 strength from comparative demand on the consumption side, 

 combined with comparative efficiency of food production, par- 

 ticularly when any limitation arises in the extent of the whole 

 available agricultural resources. 



In competition with other branches of agriculture the dairy 

 industry, as a whole, in the principal countries has evidently had 

 strength enough to hold its own. A study of live-stock statistics in 

 different countries shows, that while the per capita ratio of all cattle 

 has often declined in recent years, the per capita ratio of dairy cows 

 has either been maintained or has declined to a smaller extent, and 

 where the former ratio has risen the latter has generally risen still 

 more. 1 Not only does this industry lend itself to intensive methods 

 of farming, but with proper breeding and selection, the yield per 

 cow has shown itself in various instances to be capable of great 

 increase. In practice it is found that the dairy industry enables 

 holders to gain a livelihood from smaller holdings than does ordinary 

 crop farming. 2 It should be noted that the milk production per 

 cow per annum has shown a tendency to increase in recent years 

 more rapidly than the meat production per head of cattle 

 enumerated. 3 The conclusion is, therefore, that there has been a 

 greater per capita gain or a smaller per capita decline in a number 

 of countries in the consumption of dairy products than in the con- 

 sumption of beef and veal. 4 



There is no doubt that the demand for dairy products has 

 assisted in this victory of the dairy industry ; the growing con- 

 centration of populations in large towns and the increase in the 



1 Striking examples occur in the case of France, the United States, Australia 

 and New Zealand. 



2 The value of the dairy produce per acre is about four times as great 

 reckoned in terms of human food as that of the beef produced when the land 

 is devoted entirely to raising beef cattle. A crop rotation may or may not 

 produce a greater quantity of human food, but the question of soil fertility 

 tends, as shown above (Part I., Chap, viii.) to make animal industries insepar- 

 able from crop production in the long run. Concerning the unfavourable 

 effects of specialisation in highly productive dairy cows upon meat production 

 see p., below. 



3 Two examples will suffice to show the tendency towards increased milk 

 yields ;f in Denmark the average^yield increased from 462 gallons in 1896 to 

 about 630 gallons in 1911; estimated in Ontario, Canada, from 280 gallons 

 in 1900 to 410 gallons in 1913. Where statistics are available, as in the 

 United States, Germany and the United Kingdom, there does not appear to 

 have been a decided tendency for the proportion of slaughterings to cattle 

 enumerations to increase in recent years (see tables, U.S. Dept. Agric. Bureau 

 of Crop Estimates, Report 109, pp. 124, 125). This may bs largely explained 

 by the greater proportions of dairy cows at the later date, since dairy cows 

 reach the age of 5 to 7 years, or even more, before slaughtering, as compared 

 with 1J to 2J years for beef cattle. 



4 This perhaps does not apply to the world-market, but rather to individual 

 countries. In temperate*South America there has been an enormously 



: greater increase in meat production than in butter production, which has 

 indeed Actually declined in recent years. 



