PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION 



the Empire is a considerable producer not only of tropical oil-seeds, 

 but also of linseed and cotton-seed. It is obvious that much de- 

 pends here upon the establishment of more extensive crushing and 

 extracting works in the United Kingdom, otherwise Empire- grown 

 oil -seeds may find their way, as in the past, to foreign countries. 

 It is upon increased quantities of feed-cakes and meals derived 

 from Empire-grown oil-seeds treated in the United Kingdom, that 

 the chief hopes are to be placed for reducing the Empire's present 

 great deficiency in animal feedstuff s. This deficiency as we have 

 seen, appears at present most conspicuously in maize, and as but 

 small quantities of this cereal are at present produced within the 

 Empire, the only immediate means of reducing the dependence 

 in this direction upon foreign sources of supply is to use Empire- 

 grown substitutes to the fullest possible extent. 



We may now pass on to a more detailed examination of the 

 Empire's position with regard to animal foodstuffs. The table 

 below shows the total quantities of these articles imported into the 

 United Kingdom in the years 1900 and 1913, summarised in the 



1 The meat obtained from the imported cattle, which were mainly mature 

 animals slaughtered on arrival, has been taken as averaging 6 cwt. dressed 

 weight. The meat obtained from imported sheep has been taken as averaging 

 56 Ibs. dressed weight. For the details of these co-efficients, see (Cd. 8448), 

 pp. 166, 167. 



2 Imported eggs have been taken as averaging 8 to the Ib. or 896 eggs to 

 the cwt. This may be slightly under the actual average owing to extensive 

 importations of small-sized eggs from Russia and elsewhere. 



