Part 6

FOOD IMPORTED INTO AND RETAINED BY THE UNITED KINGDOM IN 1908.

CORN (including wheat, barley, oats, rye, buckwheat, peas, beans, maize, wheatmeal, flour, oatmeal, and offals) £71,103,487

MEAT, fresh and frozen (including animals for food) 48,704,613

Total £119,808,100

Of this--

£ Per Cent. Argentina supplied 29,569,773 or 24.68 U.S.A. supplied 38,229,135 or 31.90 Russia supplied 7,394,607 or 6.18 Canada supplied 11,907,203 or 9.94 Australia (including Tasmania) supplied 4,520,244 or 3.77 Other Colonies and Foreign Countries supplied 28,187,138 or 23.53

£119,808,100 or 100.00

* * * * *

CORN IMPORTED INTO AND RETAINED BY THE UNITED KINGDOM IN 1908.

Argentina. U.S.A. Russia. Canada. Australia (including Tasmania).

£ £ £ £ £ Wheat ... ... | 13,096,812 10,779,221 2,286,180 6,335,329 2,402,988 | Barley ... ... | 22,943 733,446 2,622,005 205,697 -- | Oats ... ... | 1,463,368 -- 1,144,387 6,441 -- | Rye ... ... | -- 129,691 93,066 49,009 -- | Buckwheat ... ... | -- -- 6,677 -- -- | Peas ... ... | -- 38,545 42,279 105,495 2,345 | Beans (not fresh, | other than Haricot| Beans) ... ... | -- -- 15,094 -- -- | Maize ... ... | 5,603,463 2,023,576 1,107,858 44,822 -- | Wheatmeal | and Flour ... | 50,597 5,407,119 80 809,479 119,440 | Oatmeal and | Rolled Oats ... | -- 183,334 -- 207,516 -- | Farinaceous sub- | stances (except | Starch, Farina, | Dextrine, and | Potato Flour) | -- 99,112 -- 59,302 -- | Bran and Pollard | 11,932 -- -- -- -- | Sharps and | Middlings | 35,113 -- -- -- -- | Maize Meal | -- 129,543 -- -- -- ----+-----------+------------+-----------+-----------+----------- £ 20,284,228 | 19,523,587 | 7,317,626 | 7,823,090 | 2,524,773 ----------------+------------+-----------+-----------+----------- Percentage 28.53% | 27.46% | 10.29% | 11.00% | 3.56% ----------------+------------+-----------+-----------+-----------

* * * * *

Other Colonies and Foreign Total. Countries.

£ £ 13,630,183 71,103,487

---------------+-------------+ 13,630,183 | 71,103,487 | ---------------+-------------+ 19.16% | = 100% | ---------------+-------------+

* * * * *

MEAT, including animals for food, and fresh, chilled, frozen and tinned, imported into and retained by the United Kingdom in 1908:

£ Per Cent.

Argentina supplied 9,285,545 or 19.07 U.S.A. " 18,705,548 " 38.41 Russia " 76,981 " 0.16 Canada " 4,084,113 " 8.38 Australia (including Tasmania) supplied 1,995,471 " 4.10 Other Colonies and Foreign Countries supplied 14,556,955 " 29.88

48,704,613 " 100.00

The lesson shown here is one worthy of attention. We see that Argentina supplies England with one-fourth of her imported food, and U.S.A. supplies nearly one-third. Therefore it behoves both England and Argentina to see that America does not so manipulate things that she acquires the control over our meat and food supplies.

Argentine authorities should not only exercise the law sanctioned February 4th, 1907, concerning the inspection of factories, but they should enforce greater care in seeing that all Argentine saladeros and packing-houses are manipulated with intense care, and cleanliness should be insisted upon; it would be a bad day for Argentina should ever such an outcry be raised against her saladeros as that which a few years ago was directed against the North American packing houses and for a time ruined the canning industry of the United States, and yet we find American methods being introduced into Argentina without let or hindrance. If our soldiers and sailors are to be fed upon canned meats, let those who are responsible for purchasing the food, at least see that the food is prepared under healthy and sanitary conditions.

The corn-growing industry of the Argentine Republic is an intensely interesting subject. Before railways and steamships brought the foreign producer into close competition with our own farmers, Argentina did not produce enough grain to supply her home consumption, and cattle were bred only for their hides, tallow and bones. In the course of time, when steamers superseded sailing-ships and the world's carrying capacity thus became enormously increased, Argentina saw her opportunity of becoming a keen competitor in the food market. Corn-growing became a highly remunerative business, although much still remains to be learned concerning the handling of wheat. Both in the States and Canada grain is handled in a cheaper and more expeditious manner than in Argentina. An enormous amount of grain is dealt with in the Wheat Exchange of Winnipeg, but a further big impetus will be given to this industry when the wheat-fields of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba are connected with a deep-sea port on Hudson Bay; this will be an accomplished fact in 1915, and as this route means a thousand miles less haulage by land, and eight hundred less by sea to the chief European ports than by any existing route, it is bound to become the popular one; the chief factor, however, in making it a useful wheat outlet is the established fact that Hudson Bay, although many miles north of Lake Superior, remains free from ice for a period of one month after Lake Superior is tightly frozen up.

Argentina may look forward to keen competition with Canada and Siberia for many years to come; on the other hand, the U.S.A. will steadily show a smaller quantity of wheat available for exportation, and the following table throws some light upon the wheat position:--

Argentina and Uruguay have increased the area of their wheat-growing land brought under the plough in the last ten years by 124 per cent. Canada in the last ten years by 120 per cent. Russia in the last ten years by 27 per cent. United States in the last ten years by 14 per cent.

No country in the world has shown such wonderful capabilities for growing linseed as the Argentine, and her average production for the following five-year periods show this expansion:--

Years. Production in Tons. 1894-1898 193,000 1899-1903 382,000 1904-1908 839,000

In ten years she increased her production by 335 per cent. In the same period India increased her production by 3.8 per cent., and North America by 105 per cent., whilst Russia was unable to keep up her supply.