OUR IMPORTS OF FEEDING STUFFS. 



The extent to which the maintenance of the live stock of 

 the United Kingdom is dependent upon the supplies of 

 imported feeding stuffs is a subject of considerable interest 

 in its relation to the home production of meat and milk. 

 Among imported articles used wholly or partly as feeding 

 stuffs, the principal are oil-cakes, oil-seeds, barley, oats, 

 maize, beans, pease, and hay ; and to these may be added 

 the minor imports of rye, buckwheat, and meals of 

 various kinds*. It is difficult to arrive at any exact 

 appreciation of the volume of such materials which is con- 

 verted into meat and milk, inasmuch as a certain quantity ot 

 some of the articles enumerated is used for other purposes. 

 For example, imported oats, maize, and beans enter, in 

 different proportions, into rations for horses ; foreign barley 

 and maize are used in the brewing and distilling industries ; 

 and these grains, as well as several of the other products 

 mentioned above, are employed in poultry foods, in the 

 manufacture of some proprietary preparations, and in other 

 directions. But, if under the term live stock be included 

 horses and poultry, the only disturbing factors for which 

 allowance need be made are the quantities of the several 

 imported materials consumed in various manufactures. In 

 the first place, therefore, attention may be directed to the 

 chief features connectf^d with the imports and uses of the 

 principal kinds of feeding stuffs, beginning with the grains. 



Of the fodder grains imported into the United Kingdom 

 maize is one of the cheapest, its average import value at the 

 present time being about 3s, 6d. per cwt. Only on four 

 occasions during the past twenty years have our annual 



* In addition to the articles mentioned, some portion of the net imports of rice 

 and of unenumerated farinaceous substances are utiHsed for feeding live stock. 



