WITHIN THE BRITISH EMPIRE 



279 



A study of this table shows that among the various items detailed* 

 only mutton and lamb, cheese, and tallow are supplied from the 

 Empire to the extent of more than half of the total imports into the 

 United Kingdom ; while practically the whole of the condensed 

 milk, margarine, eggs, lard and poultry imported are derived from 

 foreign sources. In production as related to consumption, the 

 weakness of the British Empire occurs in poultry produce, pig- 

 meat and lard, beef and dairy produce in the order named. It 

 will be noticed that the production of all of these, except perhaps 

 of beef, depends upon the more intensive methods of animal hus- 

 bandry and the conclusion suggests itself that the British Empire 

 as a whole is backward compared with other areas in respect of 

 intensive methods of production. This conclusion is confirmed by 

 the further observation that the Empire's chief strength lies in 

 the production of mutton and tallow which are more particularly 

 products of a pastoral industry involving a minimum expenditure 

 of human labour. The per capita consumption of mutton and 

 lamb among the white people of the British Empire is higher than 

 that of any other considerable population in the world ; and they 

 thus appear to depend, so far as their meat supplies aie concerned, 

 more largely upon the produce of the purely pastoral industry than 



1 Net imports are the quantities retained for consumption, i.e., total imports 

 less re-exports and exports of United Kingdom produce. 



8 Except where re-exports are negligible, the figures in this column have 



been obtained by multiplying by the factor, 



total imports. 



3 Includes margarine, oleomargarine and imitation lard. 



