WITHIN THE BRITISH EMPIRE 283 



plied from the overseas Empire. Now extensive areas in the temper- 

 ate regions of the Empire are admirably adapted to the cultivation 

 of one or other, or of both of these crops. Both succeed well in 

 the United Kingdom, for example. The extensive imports of 

 these cereals into this country from foreign sources, prior to 1914, 

 may be accounted for mainly through the large and cheap surplus 

 from Russia. 1 Even when peace conditions are restored, however, 

 it may be some considerable time before the Russian export trade 

 in cereals reaches its previous dimensions, and in any case, it may 

 not resume its old channels by any means completely owing to the 

 surplus being partly or largely intercepted by countries nearer to 

 Russia than the United Kingdom. This would scarcely be a matter 

 for regret, since there is no essential reason, beyond the difficulties 

 and costs of transport, why the United Kingdom, together with 

 the outlying temperate parts of the Empire should not entirely 

 supply the Empire's requirements in oats and barley. It may be 

 observed, incidentally, that Russia was formerly an important 

 source of wheat supplies also for the United Kingdom, and that wheat 

 exports from Russia are likely to be affected in the same way as 

 those of oats and barley in the future. Hence the British Empire's 

 production of all three of these grains would be stimulated by any 

 failure on the part of the Russian export trade to the United 

 Kingdom to resume its former proportions. 



The Empire's position with reference to feedstuff s may now be 

 summarised in general terms. It will be seen later that in the case 

 of bulky commodities such as food cereals and feedstuffs, the im- 

 ports into the United Kingdom from foreign countries, that is, the 

 apparent trade deficiency, will always tend to be greater than the 

 net deficiency of the Empire. In fact, in some of these items the 

 United Kingdom may have an import trade from extra- Imperial 

 sources, while the Empire, as a whole, may become a surplus- 

 producing area. This fact must always be borne in mind in con- 

 sidering the relations between production and consumption within 

 the Empire in these products. Thus, in the feedstuffs derived 

 from wheat and to a smaller extent in those derived from oats and 

 barley, the Empire's net deficiency was already in 1913 less than 

 that shown by the imports into the United Kingdom from foreign 

 countries. Nevertheless, the Empire as a whole showed a net 

 deficiency in all these items, which, however, may be remedied 

 more or less completely in the future. The oil-seeds group is very 

 important from the point of view of the Imperial production of 

 feedstuffs. Under this head there is at present a considerable 

 deficiency when cotton-seed and cotton-seed cake are included, but 



1 The export trade in barley and oats from the Russian Baltic ports to the 

 United Kingdom was assisted by cheap freights. In the period 1909-13 

 Russia supplied 33% of the total imports of barley into the United Kingdom 

 and 32% of those of oats. It should be noted that there were appreciable 

 quantities of these cereals exported from Canada to places outside the Empire 

 at the same time. 



