New-York tribune., 1902-12-28

The relation of population to the Food supply is
a vital one II becomes the more so II human
arpetitee multiply faster than does the availaoe
SIMPLY OF food. The Asiatic is chiefly vegetarian
The caucasian race has prediction for animal
foods Just now civilization is wrestling with the
rest problem and its relation to the laws of supply
and demand. The student OF industrial conoitiohs
must at once be with the startling fact that
,bera are coming into existence more human beings
relatively with animals with which 10 feed them.
The most recent livestock statistics Of the world
place the number OF cattle hogs. sheep and goats
combined at something like l,120.eooooo head from
which to draw the meat supply OF the worlG
sdiyided as follows One hundred and forty million
hogs sl08e00eo cattle. eeo.oooe0 sheep and about
7aOO0oe0 goats. OF these the United States has
g. 7saeeo cattle s3oooeOO hogs s2-0eoo0o sheep and
about 500 600 goats. slightly than ls3eo0oee
head The Russian Empire has 50. .Gaooeo cattle.
100000 hogs and s. 100000 sheep or 125eeooo head
Germany has about 100000 cattle, 100000 hogs
and 100000 sheep. total Of A,5GettD mead
Argentina p 0Iaee cattle. less than loooeS
hogs and 7s.6eo0e sheep. or .s6,eeoeoo head in all
France owns l4,5o0ooo cattle, 6.7oo,oo0 hogs and
100000 sheep. total of over 100000 head o.
livestock Austria Hungary possesses 100000 cat
tie 100000 hogs and li.ceo0D sheep, making a
total of SseOaeoo edible animals. Australasia has
II esoooO cattle. less than 10000 hogs and abou'
1l0ce0oeo sheep i21. .e90.o00 head in ALL Leaving
Great Britain out the European countries have,
conformity about lea0eoeeO cattle. 1S30oooo0 sheep
and goats and 650o0os0 hogs. or total OF 2SotoVD
head with which feed a population of approx
mately SI00000eo persons The United States, with
a population OF about one-hfth Of the combined
population Of Europe Ghe British Isles includeG),
has 65 per cent many cattle 45 per cent as many
sheep and within 100000 as many hogs they
IL is also 10 be remembered that the weight
OF the American OK and hos largely exceeds that
Of The Continental animal OF the same species.
The scarcity OF meat in Europe can therefore be
easily seen. In Russia. France and Austria Hun
gary where the distance between man and meat is
less there is less OF agitation tnau in Great
Britain and Germany, where the ratio OF meat to
ponulation shows scantiness OF the former per
capita.
The existing scarcity is not sudden. In that fact
lies the seriousness of the situation. There has
been q persistent widening of the gap between the
Increase in population and that Of livestock in
European countries This has had its inevitable
effect upon the worlds supply of food and the
means OF feeding mankind.
In 1870 France had 1sS head of livestock per 1000
"a the mean time the French population has in
.-eased. Frenchnen turned vegetarians to the ex
te,.t of the loss and remained conterted and IN
li.striotfs Denmark shows greater retro
gression, dropping back from 1877 head OF livestock
to the 900 acres of the country TO i15 head net
Joss Of So head. Germany had three times many
sheen twenty-five years ago she now has and
has fewer cattle per capita than then. This
fact is being made patent by the agrarian move
rnent the of the German TO agricultural
pursuits and thus TO reshift the centre Of energy