ECONOMY IN BRITISH TYPE CLIMATE

Lumbering is quite profitable

• Unlike the equatorial forests, the deciduous treesoccur in pure stands and have greater lumbering value.
• The open nature of the forests with sparse undergrowthis useful in logging operations.
• Easy penetrationmeans much cost can be saved in the movement of the logs.
• The deciduous hardwoodsare excellent for both fuel and industrial purposes.
• In Tasmania, the temperate eucalyptsare also extensively felled for the lumbering industry.
• Higher up the mountains, conifers (softwood)are felled and transported to paper and pulp industry. They are extensively used in cardboard making.

INDUSTRIALIZATION

• The regions are highly industrialized with high standard of living.
• The countries are concerned in the production of machinery, chemicals, textiles, and other manufactured articles rather than agriculture, fishing, or lumbering, though these activities are well represented in some of the countries.
• Fishing is particularly important in Britain, Norway, and British Columbia.
• Britain, France, and Germany have significant mineral resources and are heavily industrialized.
• Ruhr region in Germany, Yorkshire, Manchester, and Liverpoolregions in Britain are significant for wide ranging manufacturing industries.
• Automobile industry is the most significant. (BMW, Volkswagen, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and many other world leading car manufacturers have their headquarters in Germany).
• Industries based on dairy products thrive in Denmark, Netherlands, and New Zealand.
• Tasmania is important for merino wool production. Wool produced here is exported to textile factories in England, Japan, China etc.

AGRICULTURE

• A large range of cereals, fruits and root crops are raised, mainly for home consumption rather than for export.
• North-West Europe, which includes some of the most crowded parts of the globe, has little surplus for export. It is, in fact, a net importer of food crops, especially wheat.

MARKET GARDENING

• All the north-western European countries are highly industrialized and have high population densities. There will normally be great demand for fresh vegetables, eggs, meat, milk, and fruits.
• As the crops are perishable, a good network of transport is indispensable. The produce is shipped by high-speed trucks (truck farming, which is commonly used in the United States)
• In Australia, high-speed boats ply across the Bass Strait daily from Tasmania to rush vegetables, tomatoes, apples and beans to most of the large cities in mainland Australia. It is no wonder the Australians nicknamed Tasmania the ‘garden state’.

MIXED FARMING

• With the rise of industry, more arable farms are being devoured by factories and wheat is now a net import item in Europe.
• Throughout north-western Europe, farmers practice both arable farming (cultivation of crops on ploughed land) and pastoral farming (keeping animals on grass meadows).
• Amongst the cereals, wheat is the most extensively grown, almost entirely for home consumption.
• The next most important cereal raised in the mixed farm is barley. The better-quality barley is sold to the breweries for beer-making or whisky distilling.
• The most important animals kept in the mixed farm are cattle.
• The countries bordering the North Sea (Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands) are some of the most advanced dairying countries where cattle are kept on a scientific and intensive basi

DAIRYING

• The temperate western margin type of climate is almost ideal for intensive dairying.
• Cheese is a specialized product of the Netherlands.
• From Denmark and New Zealand comes high-quality butter.
• Milk is converted to cream, which is less perishable than fresh milkand is exported to all regions across the globe.
• Fresh milk is converted into various forms of condensed or evaporated milk, and exported around the world for baby-feeding, confectionery, ice-cream and chocolate making.

BEEF CATTLE

• Besides dairying, some cattle are kept as beef cattle.
• In Argentina or Australia, meat production is the primary concern.
• The high rate of beef consumption in Europe necessitates large imports of frozen and chilled beef.
• The pigs and poultryact as scavengers that feed on the leftovers from root-crops and dairy processes. In this way, Denmark is able to export large quantities of bacon [cured meat from the back or sides of a pig] from pigs that are fed on the skimmed milk, a by-product of butter-making.

SHEEP REARING

• Sheep are kept both for wool and mutton.
• Britain is the home of some of the best-known sheep breeds.
• With the greater pressure exerted on land by increased urbanization, industrialization and agriculture, sheep rearing is being pushed further and further into the less favored areas.
• Britain was once an exporter of wool (But now it imports from Australia). But today exports only British pedigree animals to the newer sheep lands of the world (Australia).
• In the southern hemisphere, sheep rearing is the chief occupation of New Zealand, with its greatest concentration in the Canterbury Plain [The rain shadow region]. It has been estimated that for every New Zealander there are 20 sheep.
• Favourable conditions include extensive meadows, a mild temperate climate, well-drained level ground, scientific animal breeding, the development of refrigeration –enables chilled Canterbury lamb and Corriedale mutton to reach every corner of the globe.
• Though New Zealand has only 4 per cent of the world’s sheep population, it accounts for two-thirds of the world’s mutton exports, and one sixth of world wool exports.
• In Tasmania and southern Chile, sheep rearing has always been a predominant occupation with surplus sheep products for the international trade.