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TJic Country Gentleman s Magazine 



so great an extent is the market affected by 

 this cause, that while the weekly average of 

 arrivals in New York (sheep and lambs) 

 during 1870 was nearly 50,000, last year it 

 was only about 26,000, and it is not believed 

 that during the present year the average will 

 very largely exceed 12,000. The decrease, 

 the larger dealers say, is entirely caused by 

 the increase in the market price of wool. Of 

 the number actually received, the finest come 

 from Canada, and the credited reason is 

 that in Canada the favoured breeds are the 

 Leicester and the Cotswold, which are 

 acknowledged to be the best for the 

 table. There are comparatively few sheep of 

 these breeds on this continent, and the main 

 supply is of other varieties. The receipts 

 from Canada come in from early in September, 

 and continue until the following January. In 

 comparison with the mutton of England, 

 it is acknowledged by the larger dealers that, 

 with rare exceptions, the English is the best. 



In England the sheep are not allowed to roam 

 as they do in this country, and it is held that 

 our sheep are not sufficiently hardy to thrive 

 under the climatic conditions which obtain in 

 Canada and the northern and western por- 

 tions of the United States. Concerning the 

 difference in the habit of our people in pur- 

 chasing as compared with those of England, 

 the dealers say that the mass of the people 

 here call for the more costly pieces, while the 

 inferior portions are left unsold. A very 

 heavy dealer informed the writer that while 

 all over Great Britain every eatable portion 

 of a sheep sold readily, here the breast is often 

 without a market \ and the heads, which else- 

 where are a regular article of sale, he has not 

 been able to give away, and has been forced 

 to carry them to the refuse grounds at his 

 own expense. The truth is that the people 

 here have a surfeit of beef and mutton, and 

 the result is a very large waste of really nutri- 

 tious food. 



THE COST OF PRODUCING LIVE STOCK. 



THOSE who know anything about the 

 matter are well aware that, instead of 

 the high price of butchers' meat being profit- 

 able to the producer, it is a grievance of no 

 slight magnitude to him, the fact being that 

 the scarcity of lean stock necessarily causes a 

 competition among farmers, and compels 

 them to pay unusually high rates for animals. 

 The following remarks, which appear in La?id 

 ajid Water, have reference to some of the 

 exigencies of bringing cattle into the English 

 market : — 



The British ptiblic have begun, let us hope, 

 to discover at last that gigantic commercial 

 prosperity, which means the rapid accumula- 

 tion of large fortunes by the few who have 

 capital embarked in trade, may be accom 

 panied by consequences very unwelcome to 

 the ordinary householder enjoying an income, 

 more or less inelastic in its character. Money 

 is plentiful, but the result is a reduction in 



its purchase-value, and that all articles of 

 general consumption are advanced in price. 

 Not to speak of such an important com- 

 modity as coal, we are brought face to face 

 with an augmentation in the cost of beef and 

 mutton at which even the pitiless hearts 

 of the Staleybridge butchers have been 

 touched with woe. In point of fact, these 

 blighted beings have to pay such heavy 

 prices for their cattle that they can make little 

 or no profit on the sales, and if they advanced 

 their charges their customers would turn 

 empty-handed away. Unwelcome as it may 

 be to avow it, the influences which affect the 

 price of meat in this country are of such a 

 character that there seems to be little prospect 

 of much being accomplished to increase the 

 producer's profits or diminish the burden of 

 the consumer. Cattle belong to that class 

 of commodity, which, although it can be 

 multiplied to an almost indefinite extent, can 



