314 PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION 



of foodstuffs in the British Overseas Dominions depends mainly 

 upon an increase in their numbers of agricultural workers. This 

 applies also to the countries of temperate South America, and even 

 to the United States. On the other hand, emigrants from Europe 

 to the newer countries tend to adopt the standard of living of those 

 countries as soon as they are established in them. One marked 

 feature of the standard of living, which is common to all new coun- 

 tries, is a high per capita rate of consumption of animal foodstuffs 1 ; 

 and emigrants from Europe settling in new countries are likely to 

 consume more of these foodstuffs per capita than fell to their share 

 in their old homes. So far as such emigrants take up agri- 

 cultural work, their contributions, either directly or indirectly, 2 

 to the world's production of animal foodstuffs will probably more 

 than counterbalance their increased consumption ; but so far as 

 they settle in towns, their consumption may increase, without, 

 however, any corresponding compensation arising on the side of 

 production. The results of any extensive emigration from Europe 

 after the war, therefore, upon the relations between the supply 

 and the demand for animal foodstuffs, turn largely upon whether 

 the majority of the emigrants take up agricultural or urban occupa- 

 tions. 



A fifth factor bearing upon the future production of animal 

 foodstuffs is the devastation wrought upon certain productive 

 agricultural districts in Europe which have been the scenes of 

 battles or of the movements of enemy armies. This damage, 

 though by no means inconsiderable, will have affected but a small 

 area compared with the productive area of Europe, and may not 

 prove in most parts to be of a very permanent nature so far as the 

 production of crops is concerned. Indeed, the enforced rest 

 from cropping that the ground so occupied will have been subject 

 to may constitute an advantage when it is once more taken over 

 for agriculture. The destruction of buildings, however, will hinder 

 re-occupation until they are replaced, and the re-establishment of 

 animal industries will thus tend to be delayed longer than that of 

 other forms of agriculture. In this matter much depends upon 

 the arrangements made for the payment of compensation ; if the 

 latter is inadequate or is delayed, the work of restoring all such 

 land to full productiveness (without which animal industries suffer) 

 may be further delayed. 



A sixth factor, and one of no small importance in this connection, 

 is the disorganisation caused Directly and indirectly by the war in 

 the agricultural industries of Russia and Siberia. Attention has 

 been drawn in Part L, above (pp. 82-94) to the enormous surplus 

 of poultry produce, butter, and feedstuffs from Russia and Siberia 

 in the years prior to 1914, which made that region one of the three 

 greatest surplus-producing regions in respect of animal foodstuffs 



1 See Part II., Chap. i. 



8 Concerning the inter-dependence of all forms of agricultural production, 

 see above, Part L, Chap. xii. 



