182 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, 



deficiency of animal food. Nature and the art of the breeder 

 have made the sheep the most perfect machine in existence for 

 converting grass and grain into flesh. France is turning her 

 merino sheep into flesh producing animals of equal weight with 

 the South Downs, and maturing as early, yet retaining all the 

 attributes of the merino fleece. Germany, less wise, but with the 

 same object of increasing the supply of animal food, is abandon- 

 ing her splendid merinos for the English mutton races. The 

 superiority of the sheep as a meat-producing animal has been 

 conclusively demonstrated by experiment. It has been proved 

 that seventy-five pounds of food (be it hay, corn or turnips) will 

 make as many pounds of mutton as one hundred pounds of the 

 same will of beef, and that when ready for the butcher, the 

 " fifth," or waste quarter, — the ofTal parts of the sheep, — will be 

 three per cent, less than that of an ox or cow ; so that, by this 

 showing, the weight of food required to produce seven hundred 

 and thirty pounds of beef would make one thousand pounds of 

 mutton. When we consider the positive saving in the use of 

 mutton over all other meat, its superior nutritiousness, and the 

 facility with which it is digested, added to the fact that of all 

 animals the sheep is easiest fed, we need not wonder that Eng- 

 land, with its dense population and manufacturing cities, has been 

 compelled to cultivate sheep up to the absolute capacity of her 

 high-priced lauds, and to attain the enormous number of 34,- 

 532,000, yielding an annual produce of over £30,000,000. 



In England the indispensable necessities of its people are suf- 

 ficient to stimulate the production of sheep. In this country the 

 increase of sheep has been aided by the protective duties on wool. 

 Thus we are able to draw a supply of mutton from thirty-five 

 millions of sheep. The supply of pure mutton sheep — those of 

 English blood declining for a time by the free admission of Canada 

 combing-wools under the Reciprocity Treaty — was revived by the 

 protective duties on combing-wools, under the tariff" of 1867, and 

 is now having a rapidly increased extension. The quality of 

 mutton in all our markets has improved. It is daily increasing in 

 popular demand. Where hundreds of sheep were sold in the 

 Brighton market twenty 3^ear8 ago, there are now sold thousands. 

 In the markets of New York, where sheep, a few years since, 

 were slaughtered solely for their pelts and tallows, more time is 

 required of the butchers to supply the demand for mutton than for 

 all other meats ; and the returns of these markets show mutton to 



