THE FARMER'S MAGAZLNE. 



147 



shiio Down sheep, found it worth while to pay attention to 

 the cross, and, baviug persevered, had brought them to 

 perfection. They would acquire an advantage, if they 

 purchased a new ram ; and they would have one-fourth more 

 twins than if they had kept exclusively to their own stock. 

 Mr. J. Blundell proposed, in order to reduce their dis- 

 cussion to a practical result, "That this meeting is of 



opinion that careful and judicious crois of sheep offers to 

 both the breeders and graziers the best prospect of profit, 

 and, at the same time, the tjest supply of mutton to our 

 consuming po])ulation, and an increased supply of wool to 

 the manufacturing community." 



Mr. J. TwvNAM seconded the proposition, which wag 

 unanimously carried. 



THE IMPORTS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE. 



A remarkable improvement has recently been made 

 in the annual statement from the Board of Trade, which 

 is deserving of special notice. Hitherto we have had 

 no official data of the special imports into London, ex- 

 cept what might be gleaned from the brokers' circulars 

 and the records in the commercial journals. The last- 

 published annual return, that which supplies the figures 

 for 1857, besides giving the total imports for the United 

 Kingdom, also specifies the separate imports of the 

 leading and staple articles into the several ports. 

 Hence we are able to draw some comparisons and de- 

 ductions which may be found useful to our readers. 

 The statistics, we may again observe, apply to last 

 year (1857). 



Commencing, then, with living animals, we find 

 that the bulk of the live stock we import — and these 

 arc not very extensive— -come to London. Out of 

 (55,648 cattle imported, 41,635 came to London ; and 

 of 177,207 sheep, 161,543 were for the Metropolis. 



Of the cured provisions and foreign dairy produce 

 the direct imports into London are considerable, as 

 may be seen by the following figures : 



Kingdom. 



Bacon and hams, cwts 366,934 



Beef, salted ,, 150,940 



Pork, „ „ 88,732 



Lard, „ „ 182,860 



Liverpool receives the chief quantities of direct im- 

 ports of American provisions, but large quantities find 

 their way to London on arrival. 



Of butter we received in London 337,147 cwt. out 

 of 441,606 cwt., the total imports. Of cheese 180,496 

 cwt. out of 393,323 cwt. ; of eggs, 215,270 out of 

 634,093 cubic feet. The total number of eggs was 

 upwards of 127,000,000. 



Of foreign grain the aggregate imports into London 

 were 2,618,243 quarters, out of a total import of 

 6,847,726 quarters ; and of pulse 95,255 quarters, out 

 of 465,674 quarters, the total at all the ports. The 

 specific quantities of each was as follows : 



Kingdom. London. 



Wheat, qrs 3,437,957 . . 630,878 



Barley, „ 1,701,470 .. 568,851 



Oats, „ 1,710,299 .. 1,418.514 



Peas, „ 159,899 .. 32,779 



Beans, , 305,775 .. 62,476 



The imports of Indian corn and flour from America 

 are chiefly at Liverpool and Irish ports. Out of 

 1,150,783 qrs. of maize, but 31,664 came to Lon- 

 don; and of 2,178,148 cwts. of flour and wheatmeal, 

 only 456,779 cwts. were received here. 



London. 

 107,916 

 69,369 



58,812 

 16,549 



The imports of rice are pretty equally divided be- 

 tween London and Liverpool; for 1,680,739 cwts. 

 came to London, and 1,734,449 to Liverpool. 



Of agricultural seeds much the largest proportion 

 out of the entire imports come to Londcm. Thus 

 82,843 cwts., or about half the cloverseed, arrived in 

 London; 235,976 qrs. out of 1,051,113 qrs. of flax 

 and linseed, and 110,459 out of 220,495 qrs. of rape- 

 seed. 



The bones for manure, &c., come chiefly to Hull, 

 Liverpool, and London, and in pretty equal quantities. 

 Out of a total import of 63,951 tons, 9,384 tons came 

 to London. Guano, another chief fertilizer, is chiefly 

 imported into the Thames: out of 288,362 tons total, 

 182,096 were for London. Nearly half the oilseed- 

 cake, 46,212 out of 99,265 tons, was received in 

 London. 



Taking now a glance at some of the chief raw mate- 

 rials of commerce, we find that out of 966,212 cwts. of 

 raw hides 517,056 cwts. were imported to London ; and 

 of tanned hides in the same proportion— 3,000,000 

 out of 5,664,000 lbs. Out of 1,210,347 cwts. of tallow 

 received from abroad, 814,750 cwts. came direct to 

 London. 



Liverpool is fast equalling London in its direct im- 

 ports of wool. It has always had the monopoly of the 

 import of the South American sheep and alpaca wools, 

 but of late it has been drawing to the Mersey a large 

 share of the Australian wools. Much of the wool is, 

 however, sent to London, to be disposed of at the me- 

 tropolitan wool sales. The total imports of sheep's and 

 lambs' wool into the United Kingdom last year were 

 127,390,885 lbs.; of which 69,961,286 lbs. came to 

 London direct, and 41,247,359 lbs. to Liverpool; 

 while of the total alpaca wool (2,359,013 lbs.) 

 2,126,686 lbs. went to Liverpool, and but 133,903 lbs. 

 came to London. 



Timber, another large and important article of im- 

 port, is chiefly divided between these two great ports, 

 although London has the preponderance. The total 

 quantity received from foreign countries and our colo- 

 nies last year was 2,494,964 loads, in the log and split; 

 and the proportions in each port were as follows : 



London. Liverpool. 



In logs loads .... 204,027 .. 187,564 



Sawn or split , 391,175 .. 223,177 



Staves „ 49,508 .. 21,823 



644,710 .. 412,564 

 These are the principal articles of import. We 



