SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS PARTS I AND II. 275 



group, depend largely upon imported supplies of these materials 

 for the maintenance of their surplus (I., 2 and 6). The same is true 

 of the deficient industrial countries with regard to the supplies of 

 animal foodstuffs that they produce within their borders (I., 7). 

 In strict accuracy the exports of concentrated feedstuffs should 

 be credited together with those of animal foodstuffs to the surplus- 

 producing countries and the imports similarly debited to the im- 

 porting countries (I., 2, Table, p. 34.). 



The costs of production of animal foodstuffs tend at the present 

 time to increase, because the necessity of using land more inten- 

 sively involves greater outlays for capital and labour, and because 

 land values are rising (I., 12). This feature will remain so long as 

 the increasing demand of consumers makes it necessary to extend 

 or deepen the process of intensification ; unless, in the meantime, 

 the progress of technical science and the establishment of the whole 

 agricultural industry on a new basis greatly increases the output 

 in proportion to the expenses. 



The introduction of labour-saving machinery, which has led to 

 marked economies in the production of crops, has not hitherto been 

 of any great benefit in the production of animal foodstuffs except 

 indirectly (I., 10). 



When agricultural resources are limited as they appear to be 

 now in relation to the population to be nourished, the production 

 of food crops has a prior claim to that of animal foodstuffs for the 

 use of land, and animal industries tend therefore to be residual in 

 agriculture (I., 12, and II., 2). However, animal industries are 

 in some measure incidental (and to that extent tend to persist), 

 owing (a) to the complex nature of mixed farming ; (b) to difference 

 in soil, climate and accessibility among agricultural regions ; (c) to 

 the demand for joint products such as wool and leather, and (d) to 

 the tendency to soil exhaustion when land is used exclusively in 

 successive years for the production of food and industrial crops 

 (II., 5). The incidental production of animal foodstuffs can be 

 increased by certain modifications in consumption without 

 necessarily reducing the standard of diet, particularly by 

 effecting a reduction of the proportions of prime beef and of 

 mutton in the total quantities of animal foodstuffs consumed (II., 5). 

 Owing to their residual status in agriculture, animal industries are 

 open to competition for the use of land from the requirements of 

 food crops such as wheat, rye, sugar beet, and potatoes, and of 

 certain raw materials such as cotton, flax, linseed oil and even 

 timber (I., 11). 



The total agricultural output of the world, and therefore the 

 residue available for the production of animal foodstuffs, is suscep- 

 tible of great increases in the future, apart from the gains likely 

 to arise from a more effective utilisation of the resources of regions 

 in the tropical zone ; the quantities of mineral fertilisers available 

 in the future are likely to expand rapidly (I., 8), and this factor, 

 though it will reduce on the whole the incidental nature of animal 



