I.THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



395 



the imports last year being 18,7 12 cwts. The average 

 annual imports of hops the last three years have been 

 19,720 cwt. 



A fair amount of roasted chicory still comes in, our re- 

 ceipts from the continent in IBoG having been 24,0001bs. 

 — very greatly below, b-i\vever, the large imjiorts in ISo!) 

 of 134,(344Ibs. Tlie principle of admixture with coifee 

 seems to be largely checked by the Excise regulations, 

 which compel the sale of cliicory in separate jiackels or 

 labelled as a mixture. AVliether the home growth of 

 tlie root has been interfered with, we do not know. 



There is an enormous import of carrawayseeds, which 

 reached 12,485 cwt. in 185G, paying a duty of o^. the 

 cwt. One would scarcely suppose that, besides the 

 home growth, there should be so hirge a demand for 

 this aromatic seed for confectionary purposes, jdiar- 

 macj', and making an essential oil. 



There is a large amount of fruit of various kinds re- 

 ceived from the continent and ilsewhere, owing to our 

 variable climate being less certain and favourable for the 

 early production and ripening of many kinds. Thus 

 pears, apples, and cherries come in in considerable quan- 

 tities. For instance, in 185G, we received 531,291 bush, 

 of apples, 22,532 husli, of pears, 17,051 bush, of cher- 

 ries, small quantities of medlars, quinces, &c , besides 



97,000 bush, of unenumerated fruits. In addition to 

 these, there were 2,364 casks of dried apples, 32,642 cwt. 

 of dried plums, small quantities of dried cherries, peers, 

 &:c.,and56,531 bush, of walnuts; 127,000 bush, of onions 

 may perhaps be included in this class. These, with 

 some vinegar, piokles, and sauces, make ui> the category 

 of duty-paid ai tides competing wiih home-grown produce. 



There are, as wo have bi lore remarked, somt; few other 

 important food-products entering duty-free, such as 

 animals, salted provisions, and potatoes. Thus last year 

 •ve received 606,006 cwt. of salted meat, bacon, and 

 hams, 182,860 cwt. of lard, 956,057 cwt. of potatoes, 

 and 281,000 living animals for food. 



But how trivial would these be, towards our home 

 demand ! And against these foreign imports we have 

 also to set off the large exports of home produce of 

 agricultural origin. For instance, last year we shipped 

 435,000 barrels of beer and ale, 110,003 cwt. butter, 

 28,000 cwt. cheese, 4,821,277 gallons of British spirits, 

 and pickles and sauces of the value of i:355,496 — 

 making up for these few enumerated articles a total de- 

 clared value of nearly £'3,500,000, besides many others 

 of smaller gross amounts. Judging from the average of 

 years, our food exports may be taken at fully jt5,000,000 

 in value. 



REVIEW. 

 THE EVIL RESULTS OF OVER-FEEDING CATTLE.— A NEW INQUIRY. 



By F. J. G ANT.— Churchill. 



It is now just about twelve months since that we had 

 to call attention to a i-ather remarkable pamphlet on 

 the meat trade of the metropolis. The author of this, 

 Mr. Gamgee, showed that, despite our amended regu- 

 lations and improvements, the traffic in diseased flesh 

 was of itself a regular business. He found sick animals 

 openly offered for sale even in the new market at Isling- 

 ton ; while he traced their carcases to Newgate, Leaden- 

 hall, and other public resorts. Whatever people might 

 think of it, there was really no mistake about the fact. 

 The lower classes, most likely, were the chief sufferers. 

 Indied, Mr. Gamgee's argument went to this. Meat 

 unfit for human food was bought and sold clearly on 

 the understanding that it was to be had cheap. Per- 

 haps wc were all very sorry for " the poor people," and 

 there was an end of the matter. We certainly never 

 heard that anything more came of it. 



The story, however, is hardly told out yet. It may 

 be brought a little closer home to us all. Another 

 memljer of Mr. Gamgee's profession — another medical 

 man, that is — has also been pursuinjf his scientific 

 researches, and with this result — that what wc 

 consider tho best meat, he considers is the least fit 

 for consumption ! Mr. Frederick James Gant, sur- 

 geon and patliidogical anatomist to the Royal Free 

 Ilosjital, went, iike all the rest of London, to the last 

 Christmas Fat Cittle Show, at the Baker-street Bazaar. 

 His '-limited opportunity for examining them" still 

 enabled him to detect — a-< he says — a number of diseai-ed 

 beasts, sheep, and pigs. What mostly struck Mr. Gant, 

 at the outset, was what has no doubt taken tho atten- 

 tion of almost everybody else. It was, in his own 

 Italics, " the size of the aniinuls compared with their 

 respective ages." Precisely so. One of the chief objects 

 of breeders, and particularly of such societies as the 

 Smithfield Club, is early nifiturity. That is to say, we 

 get a beast, bigger and better, at half the expense in time 

 and capital, you could have done with the old unim- 



proved races. There is hardly such a thing, now, even 

 as old mutton. But Mr. Gant looks at this in a very 

 different light, and is by no means willing tojoininthe 

 self-gratulation with which we have been greeting 

 each other : — 



" When I contrasted the enormous bulk of each animal 

 with the short period in which so muoh fat or flesh hal been 

 produced, I naturally indu'ged iu a physiological reflection on 

 tUe high-preaaure work againat time which certain vital in- 

 ternal or.{ai;s, 83 the stomach, liver, heart, and lungs, must 

 have undergone at a very early age. No* wilh the best 

 method of rearing cattle, or that which is most conducive to 

 their health, the medical profession are only indirectly con- 

 cerned ; but of the dietetic value of animals so reared for food, 

 the profession are, or should be, the immediate overseers and 

 arbitrators." 



In accordance with this conclusion, Mr. Gant follows 

 up many of theso animals to their hst homes, and, 

 thanks to the courtesy of Messrs. Jeffery, King, Gorton, 

 Suck, Sinkler, and others, sees most of them slaughter- 

 ed. Alas! tho i)rime joints and noble carcases these 

 liberal buyers pride themselves so much on, would seem 

 to be little belter than a delusion and a snare. Those 

 fine ribbons, Christmas favours, and first-prize decrees, 

 proclaim to science but little more than that such meat 

 is not fit to be eaten. The more distinguished they 

 appear to have been in tho Show-yard, proportionately 

 the worse do the animals turn out in tho slaughter- 

 house. 



In a scries of really beantifnlly got-up plates, the 

 first we come to is a coloured illustration of "a diseased 

 heart of a sheep by conversion into (at." This is found 

 to be a Gold Med.\i. sheep, one from a pen of fat 

 wethers, the best of all the Short-wooUed — his Grace 

 the Duke of Bichmond exhibitor and breeder. Then wo 

 have depicted the diseased lungs of a sheep, one of the 

 best of all the Long- wools— Lord Berners exhibitor and 

 breeder. On the same page is the portrait of a diseased 



