The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-04

The relation of population to the food supply is vital one. It becomes the more 70 if human appetites multiply faster than does the available supply of food. The Asiatio is a prediction for animal foods. Just now civ- ilization is wrestling with the meat problem and it's relation to the laws of supply and de- mand. The student of industrial conditions must at once be struck with the startling fact that there are coming into existence more hu- man beings relatively with animals with which to feed them.
 The most recent live stock statistics of the world place the number of cattle. hogs. sheep and goats combined ct something like |, 20, 900, 900 head from which to draw the meat supply of the world, divided as fol- lows: one hundred and forty million hogs. sIo ooo. 900 cattle. 6oo.o 900 sheep and about 70 900, 900 goats Of these the United States has 67, 300, 900 cattle. 63.ooo 900 hogs 62 900, 900 sheep and about 300, 900 goats. or slightly more than ls9,ooo, 900 head The Russian Empire has 3e ooo. ooo cattle. i3,- ooo GOO hogs and 63. ooo.0 900 sheep. or l25.- ooo GOO head. Germany has about ls, ooo GOO cattle. 5000. GOO hogs and Q 600, 900 sheep, or a total of A. 500. 900 head Argentina has 2i ooo, 900 cattle. less than 1000, 900 hogs and "A 600. GOO sheep or se.ooo'oo head in all, France owns l4.5oo 900 cattle, 6.7oo.- 900 hogs and 10000, 900 sheep, total of over Al ooo, 900 head of live stock Austria Hungary possesses 900, GOO cattle. | 2. ooo.- 900 hogs and 1 | 900 900 sheep. making to- tai of ae,ooo. 900 edible animals. Australia has l, ooo. GOO cattle, less than 500, 900 hogs about | l c. GOO 900 sheep, or l2I 900. 900 head in all Leaving Great Britain out. the Euro pcan countries have have conJointly, about 100 ooo. 900 cattle, 33.ooo 900 sheep and goats and 65. GOO. 900 hogs, or total of 2eS. o0o. 900 head. with which to feed popu- iation of approximately 3lo,ooo, 900 persons. The United States, with population of about one-hfth of the combined population of Eu- rope Cthe British Isles included), has e5 per cent. as many cattle, 4S per cent as many sheep and within 7,oo0, 900 of as many hogs as they. It is also to be remembered that the average weight of the American OK and hog largely exceeds that of the Continental animal of the same species.
 The scarcity of meat in Europe can there for be easily seen. In Russia. France and Austria Hungary. where the distance between man and meat Is less. there is less of meat agitation than in Great Britain and Germany. where the ratio of meat to population shows a scantiness of the former per capita.
 The existing scarcity is not sudden. In that fact lies the seriousness of the situation. There has been a persistent widening or the gap between the increase in population and that of live stock in European countries. This has had it's inevitable effect upon the world s supply of food and the means of feeding man. kind.
 In 1875 France had Iee head of live stock per 900 acres or ner territory. She nOW has only I64 head. In the meantime the French population has increased. Frenchmen turned vegetarians to the extent of the loss and remained contented and industrious. Den- mark shows even creator reuogression' dropping back from io7 head of live stock to the 900 acres of the country to l6 head. net loss of 82 head Germany had thres times as many sheep twenty-five years ago as she now has and has fewer cattle per cap ita now than then. This fact is being maAe patent by the agrarian movement for the re- turn of the German to agricultural pursuits. and thus to reshift the centre of energy from the city and factory back to the farm and the tiIling of the land. Holland and Switzer- land have also felt the dispropottionate in- crease of population to live stocki cattle have stood still while population has crept ahead and the sheep industry has drifted back un- til those two countries now have only half as many sheep to the inhabftant as they had twenty-five years ago. A quarter Of cen- tury ago they had lo4 GOO 900 sheep. and