760 
The Fuhire of Agricultural Competition. 
oui" own markets, if sufficient ti'ouble were taken to render the 
conditions of preparing and disposing of the fibre tolerably 
favourable. 
A rise in the prices of corn would in various ways afifect the 
production of meed. In the first place it would reduce the con- 
sumption per unit of the population, unless wages in all classes 
of industry advanced at least in equal proportion. It would 
also increase the cost of producing meat, as all feeding-stuffs 
would be dearer than they have been recently. But, as these 
results would be felt everywhere, they would not materially affect 
competition. On the other hand, if corn-growing can be made 
more remunerative than it has been for some time past, meat- 
producing, other things being equal, would also pay better; for, 
the profit of the feeder in this country frequently, if not usually, 
consists in the manure produced, and the more valuable the 
Crops grown by the help of the manure are, the greater is the 
profit referi-ed to. So far we have a probably diminished con- 
sumption of meat per unit of the population, and an increased 
cost of producing it, to set against the increased value of the 
manure. How the balance would work out for meat production, 
considered by itself, it is impossible to say ; but as most pro- 
ducers of meat are also growers of corn, there is no doubt as to 
the advantage which they would derive, on the whole, from the 
changes mentioned. But this is not all ; for although a rise in 
the cost of bread would probably diminish the consumption of 
meat per unit of the population, the growth of population would 
still give an increase of total consumption. Again, while in an 
old country, like our own, the restoration to arable cultivation 
of the land laid down in pasture during the last twenty years 
would allow of more rather than less meat being produced, the 
breaking-up of great cattle ranges and runs in new countries, 
in order to srrow more corn, would increase the cost of meat 
production in a far greater proportion than the increase would 
be with us. On the whole, then, so far as the changes mentioned 
go, it appears to me that there would be a clear advantage to 
producers of meat in this country. 
There are, however, other considerations bearing upon the 
future of competition in meat pi-oduction, and, in order to bring 
them into a clear light, it is necessary to give a brief retrospect 
of past competition and its results. 
When compai'ing the imports of lire stocic and meat for 
different periods of the last twenty years, the wonder is that 
prices have kept up as well as they have. The case of breeders 
may be dismissed at once, as they have seldom, if ever, -done 
better — taking the class as a whole — than during the last three 
or four years, although in 1891 they hi^ve not obtnin^d the 
