220 CONSUMPTION 



upon imported feedstuffs has to face, arises from the fact that in 

 practice the economies of large-scale production cannot easily be 

 realised, since experience shows that large scale specialised poultry 

 farms are apt to be commercially unsuccessful. 1 The chief advan- 

 tages that such a poultry industry possesses seem to be due first, 

 to the existence of dairying, and second, to the superior technical 

 knowledge of poultry keepers, and the better breeds of poultry 

 generally found in the more advanced countries of denser 

 population. 



With the growth of large industrial populations concentrated 

 in relatively small areas, the practice has arisen of supplying eggs 

 direct from the cereal-producing regions, especially from Austria- 

 Hungary, Russia, and Siberia ; 2 the importing countries have 

 been mainly Great Britain and Germany. This method has the 

 advantage of involving but one set of transportation charges ; 

 but these are apt to be heavy owing to the necessity for cold storage 

 facilities, not only while the eggs are in transit, but still more at the 

 collecting centres while awaiting despatch. In the case of Russia 

 (the most considerable of all egg-exporting countries), such facili- 

 ties have hitherto been inadequate, but recent progress shows that 

 they may be sufficiently provided in the future, to the great advan- 

 tage of the quality of the goods on delivery, and of the stability of 

 the trade. The regions of surplus cereal production have great 

 natural advantages for the production of poultry and eggs, and 

 these advantages are likely to be utilised much more fully in the 

 future, when, both in the Old World and the New, proper systems 

 of collection and grading are established, suitable transport and 

 storage facilities provided, and the requisite technical knowledge 

 concerning the breeding and care of poultry becomes more wide- 

 spread among farmers and peasants in the specialising areas. 3 



The above digressions into the field of production have been made 

 partly in order to complete the whole subject, and partly in view 

 of the proposition above made, that the consumption of eggs, 

 present and future, depends upon the quantity of supplies available 

 at a certain price relative to general purchasing power and to the 

 price of other animal foodstuffs. On the whole, in the more 

 favoured regions, given proper care and attention, poultry are 

 economical converters of feedstuffs, and the cost of production of 

 eggs is relatively low ; but much depends also upon the provision 

 of proper trade facilities. 



1 H. Levy, Large and Small Holdings. The chief causes seem to be the 

 frequency of destructive diseases under the somewhat artificial conditions of 

 rearing and to the lack of close personal attention on the part of hired workers. 



2 Some years before 1914 the Russian peasants were finding it more profit- 

 able to feed their grain to poultry than to sell it for export Brit. Cons. 

 Report, Moscow, 1909 (Cd. 4962143), p. 8. 



3 The fowl ranks fairly high as a converter of feedstuffs into foodstuffs. 

 The quantity in dry weight of the former required by it to produce 1 Ib. dry 

 weight of the latter (eggs and flesh) being 14 Ibs. It is exceeded only by th-j 

 dairy cow and the pig, which use only 12 Ibs. Wood, National Food Supply, 

 1917, pp. 33, 34. 



