FOREWORD 



In venturing to publish this book, the author does so in the 

 hope that it may be of service to those interested in the food 

 problems which are before us. It should also be of use to those 

 stock-owners all over the world who are anxious about the 

 future of the stock-raising industry. 



For several years prior to the war it was a widely held 

 theory that the world's meat consumption was overtaking 

 the supply. Not so much to combat this belief as to furnish 

 the industries concerned with the fullest facts governing the 

 future as well as the present position, I have published from 

 time to time in The Pastoral Revieiv particulars of progress 

 and development of meat production in the later fields of 

 enterprise as well as in the domains of more mature exploita- 

 tion of this resource of Nature. The assembling of this and 

 much other information within the covers of the present 

 volume is, I think, the first attempt to treat the subject at 

 all comprehensively. 



It will be seen that I am not pessimistic as regards the meat 

 supply of the future, and I hold that for many years cattle and 

 sheep raising are going to be the most profitable of all indus- 

 tries. There are no better prospects for young men than in 

 the healthiest and cleanest of all professions — that of stock 

 raising — provided that before they launch out on their venture 

 they obtain the necessary practical knowledge and experience. 

 Wool and meat will always be in strong demand, and there 

 is no sign that either will be in over supply for many years. 

 Governments must assist and not handicap the stock-breeders, 

 and minimum prices, not maximum, should be the rule if prices 

 have to be fixed at all. The cities are entirely dependent upon 

 the producer. " Destroy your country, and the grass will 

 grow in the streets of your cities, but make the country pros- 

 perous and the cities will jump ahead in prosperity." 



