lS2 



TJie Cojintry Gentleman's Mamzine 



%\\t Jfarm. 



IMPORT AND EXPORT OF AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES. 



FROM the Trade and Navigation 

 Accounts for July, which have just 

 been published, we gather that the number 

 of oxen and bulls imported into this country 

 during the month was 13,953, o^' close upon 

 900 in excess of the receipts in the corre- 

 sponding month of last year. The results 

 of the exclusion of Russian cattle from our 

 shores, and the restrictions imposed upon the 

 importations from Schleswig-Holstein, cannot 

 as yet, of course, have had any effect upon 

 the figures, as the Privy Council Orders have 

 only been in force during the past fortnight, 

 or at rnost three weeks. Cows, we are glad 

 to see, as it is from them most danger of 

 contagion arises, have decreased over 3000 

 on the month, the number imported being 

 5007, as compared with 8454 in July 187 1. 

 In the seven months of the year which have 

 elapsed, our receipts of oxen, bulls, and 

 cows, from our various sources of supply 

 in Europe, amounted to 69,930 ; while 

 last year the total was 100,507, shew- 

 ing a falling off this year of more than 

 40,000 cattle. This decline in our foreign 

 supply has, unfortunately, not been counter- 

 balanced by a larger home supply, and the 

 natural consequence is that the price of meat 

 at" the present time is exorbitantly high, and 

 is likely to become more expensive yet, on 

 account of necessarily stricter regulations of 

 disease in our home stock, and of the scarcity 

 of animals to consume the produce of the 

 fields. Altogether, the prospect for the 

 poorer classes this winter is not a bright one. 

 There is also a decrease in the importation of 

 sheep and lambs during the past month, as 

 compared with the total of the corresponding 

 month in 1S71, the respective numbers being 

 91,991 and 107,383. In the seven months, 

 there is littie difference to note in the num- 



bers. From January to the end of July this 

 year, the receipts were 489,501, whereas in 

 the same period of last year they numbered 

 489,346. Pigs have decreased in both 

 periods, only about a-seventh part of 

 the number received last year being im- 

 ported up to the end of July, viz., 7125, as 

 against 51,492. The whole amount we have 

 disbursed for oxen, bulls, and cows, sheep 

 and lambs, and swine, during the past seven 

 months, was ;^2, 3 10,884; l^'St year, in the 

 same period, we expended ;^2, 7 19,285. 



We have been importing large quantities 

 of bacon this year, the money paid for that 

 description of food up to the end of July 

 being ;^2, 7 26,5 75, while in 1871 it did not 

 exceed ^1,5 1 1,120. As regards beef, salted, 

 fresh, or slightly salted, the supply has fallen 

 off considerably, the money expended under 

 the three heads being ;^28i,635 this year, 

 compared with ;^454,703 last. The import 

 of hams, however, has been augmented both 

 on the month and seven months, the ex- 

 penditure under this head, this year, up to 

 the making up of the Returns, being 

 ^^255,993, whereas in the same period in 

 187 1 we paid only _;^io2.769. For meat 

 " unenumerated," we have been paying 

 liberally, no less a sum than ;!^572,86i 

 having been expended during the past seven 

 months, in contrast with ;^348,789 during 

 the corresponding months of last year. We 

 observe that this increase is principally made 

 up by meat " preserved otherwise than by 

 salting," or (as we suppose) Australian beef, 

 New Zealand mutton, &c. This is a pleas- 

 ing feature in our expenditure, and we think 

 if the industrial classes would divest them- 

 selves of the prejudice which they unaccount- 

 ably hold for this excellent food, we should 

 hear less of the high price of home meat. 



