2 THE WORLDS MEAT FUTURE 



States, or Canada, where there is plenty of young male stock 

 available. Meantime people will have Learned economy, the use 

 of horse and whale flesh, and the Larger use of fish and cereals, 

 besides which there is not the necessity they imagined for so 

 big a meat diet. 



As regards Great Britain's meat supply, the war has in no 

 way diminished her flocks and herds ; in fact, if anything, they 

 are larger than before the war. The total cattle at the end of 

 1916 being 12,451,450, and the sheep 28,849,655. Imagine in 

 little Britain 2.000,000 more cattle than in all Australia. This 

 is the more wonderful when we realise that over 2,500,000 acres 

 of grazing lands have been put under crop. The British people 

 have also learned the much needed lesson of economy, and after 

 the war there will not be the enormous waste there has been in 

 the past. Cold meat will not again be thrown away wholesale 

 to the pigs and the dogs, it -will be utilised as it should be. Again, 

 many foods have taken the place of meat, and the people have 

 discovered that they are much healthier on a smaller meat diet. 

 Taking the population of Greater London, which represents 

 roughly the area supplied from Smithfield, at 7,500,000, it can 

 be seen that the Capital is now apparently consuming much less 

 meat than before the war, the quantity marketed during 1917 

 being only 1.62 lbs. per head per week, i.e. including bacon, 

 poultry, game, etc., as against 2.48 lbs. per head in 1913. The 

 Empire's armies will get back to Australia, New Zealand, 

 Canada, and India, where there is more than ample meat for 

 all their wants, and it will be found that instead of 37 per cent 

 of meat having to be imported, which before the war was 

 Britain's requirements from abroad, probably 20 per cent or 

 25 per cent only will be needed. Sixty-three per cent of the 

 total meat supply of Great Britain before the war was home 

 grown. Of the imported meat supply (37 per cent), Argentina 

 supplied 80 per cent of the beef, and Australia 12 per cent, 

 the balance coming from various sources. New Zealand sup- 

 plied 40 per cent, Australia 25 per cent, and Argentina 29 per 

 cent of the imported mutton and lamb. 



The flockb and herds in France have not decreased since 1916, 

 in fact they have increased, but from the commencement of the 

 war until that year the sheep flocks fell away by 30 per cent. 



