THE RATE OF CONSUMPTION 219 



The demand for eggs being elastic, the quantities consumed 

 depend upon conditions that affect supplies and prices. Now 

 both the production and the transportation of eggs present certain 

 peculiarities. The cheap and abundant production of eggs depends 

 upon cheap and abundant supplies of cereals, especially of maize 

 and barley, just as the cheap and abundant production of meat 

 depends upon the existence of cheap and extensive pasture lands. 

 We have seen that a certain moderate amount of poultry and egg 

 production is incidental to mixed farming even in densely-peopled 

 agricultural countries, since farmyard poultry in limited numbers 

 consume very little in the way of marketable feedstuffs. 1 It appears 

 therefore that a small local demand might be supplied at compara- 

 tively low prices, since the cost of production under such condi- 

 tions would be nominal only. 2 It is quite otherwise, however, 

 when poultry are kept in large numbers to meet the requirements 

 of an extensive market, because they then consume cereals and 

 other feedstuffs which have either to be purchased, or if grown on 

 the farm, could be marketed or utilised in other ways. 



It is owing to the fact that poultry, in order to be profitable, 

 have to be fed largely upon cereal feedstuffs, that the most extensive 

 poultry rearing and egg-producing industries have settled down 

 upon the great cereal-producing regions of the world, especially 

 those where barley and maize are prominent crops. 3 The alter- 

 native to such localisation consists in the transportation of cereal 

 products for poultry feedstuffs in bulk, to supplement the locally 

 grown supplies of such feedstuffs in countries of denser population 

 and more intensive methods of farm management. This is econo- 

 mically possible only in a few regions that have already access to 

 the sea, good inland system of distribution, and a skilled agricul- 

 tural population. Except under favourable geographical condi- 

 tions, the transportation charges on these somewhat bulky goods 

 are apt to be heavy in proportion to their farm value. If such 

 imported feedstuffs form the greater part of those fed to the poultry 

 flocks in any producing areas, it is probable that double transport 

 charges have to be met, namely, first, those on the feedstuffs 

 brought to the poultry farms from a distance ; and second, those 

 on the eggs from the farms to the urban centres of consumption. 

 A further disadvantage that such a poultry industry depending 



as a rough, though sometimes quite unreliable, guide as to the comparative 

 food values that a given sum of money will purchase. The craving for variety 

 causes departures from the most economical expenditure of each individual's 

 purchasing power available for foodstuffs, and in the case of eggs the margin 

 between the price paid and the price of equivalent nourishment in terms of 

 other foodstuffs may be considerable. 



1 The parallel facts concerning meat production, prices and consumption 

 are discussed in Chap, v., below. 



2 Concerning nominal costs of production of poultry products, see U.S. 

 Dept. Agric., Farmer's Bulletin, 560, p. 25. 



3 Poultry -rearing is also found as a subsidiary industry to the production 

 of butter, skim-milk and butter-milk being useful supplementary rations for 

 poultry. The ideal conditions for poultry are found in a cereal region, where 

 there is also somt dairying, provided the human factor is not wanting. 



