PRODUCTION IN RELATION TO CONSUMPTION L><>7 



would have arisen, had it not been for the recent rapid increase in 

 the South American output. 1 Correspondingly there has been an 

 increase in the per capita consumption of pig-meat in a number of 

 countries. 2 In certain continental countries, where pastures are 

 limited, the per capita consumption of veal has tended to rise, while 

 throughout the European world the tendency prior to 1914 was 

 towards an increased per capita consumption of poultry and eggs. 



declined rather than increased in the period, the fall in the per capita supplies 

 must have been serious. In North America the table, p. 41, shows that there 

 was a marked decline in the actual numbers and a still greater decline in the 

 per capita ratios of sheep in the period 1901-11. The disappearance in the 

 interval of the export trade in live sheep to Europe cannot have been a suffi- 

 cient compensating factor to maintain the per capita supplies of mutton at 

 the same level. 



1 The general decline in the ratios of all cattle to the population observed 

 in Europe and North America has fallen rather upon mature beef cattle than 

 upon dairy cattle, so that the former have declined all the more in proportion 

 to the population. This decline is accounted for to some extent by the fact 

 that young cattle have been slaughtered in increasing numbers for veal, instead 

 of being fed to maturity. 



Enumerations are not an exact guide to meat production. It is clear 

 that if an animal is slaughtered at the age of 1 year instead of at the age of 

 2 years, it escapes one enumeration as compared with the latter case, but 

 the meat produced is not twice as great at the end of two years as at the end 

 of 1 year. If, however, a calf is slaughtered for veal within one year of birth, 

 it may escape all enumerations. The slaughtering of animals at an earlier 

 age tends therefore to reduce the figures of enumeration without always a 

 corresponding decline in meat production arising. 



'- The United Kingdom is again an exception. In the import trade bel\\. -m 

 1901 and 1913 pig-meat declined per capita, while mutton and lamb ruse. 



