and the Cattle Census. 407 



ward districts were dropped ; but some indication, less g-eneral in 

 its character than " the northern counties of England and Scot- 

 land," ought to have been given of the different counties where 

 this was observed. Lambs were certainly omitted in other than 

 the northern counties, as is within my knowledge. 



As to defects arising from neglect or refusal to fill up the 

 returns, that must be left entirely to conjecture in the absence 

 of any guiding principle to reason upon. I have papers belore 

 me from independent authorities which convince me that amongst 

 the least intelligent class of farmers, especially in distiicts remote 

 from the civilizing influence of towns, a jealous distrust of all 

 official-looking forms, which are associated in their minds with 

 increased taxation, and a dislike to revealing their affairs, ope- 

 rated unfavourably against a correct return. More than one case 

 has been mentioned to me in which political dislike towards 

 ]Mr. Gladstone, on account of that statesman's policy on the 

 Malt Tax question, was alleged as a cause for declining to make 

 the return. But the general result of my inquiries goes to show 

 that all this distrust and misunderstanding of the object of the 

 returns would soon disappear, and that if another census were 

 taken next year or the year after, a very great improvement in 

 the quality of the returns would be manifest. On the whole, 

 therefore, I think the general result of the experiment cannot be 

 deemed otherwise than highly satisfactory, and that such defects 

 in the system as have been observed admit of easy remedy. 



Before proceeding to analyse this return of live stock, I will 

 briefly refer to some of the estimates which have found cur- 

 rency in past years, as to the quantity of live stock in Great 

 Britain, inasmuch as it would seem that rather extra\agant 

 notions have been accepted. At several of the county meetings 

 held since the advent of rinderpest, speakers, well informed on 

 agricultural matters, quoted the estimated stock of cattle in 

 Great Britain at seven million head, and, taking the official 

 statement of the Registiar-General of Ireland, that country 

 counted for another oi millions ; so the imaginary wealth of the 

 United Kingdom was set down at a round aggregate of eleven 

 millions of beeves. 



How this estimate was arrived at I do not know, but it cer- 

 tainly turns out to be far from correct. In the absence of specific 

 knowledge upon any subject where numbers are concerned, the 

 inquirer naturally endeavours to arrive at some approximation 

 by extending the conclusions deducible from limited observa- 

 tion. This has notably been done in the case of the live stock 

 in the United Kingdom by some of the principal writers on the 

 wealth and resources of the British Empire ; and it cannot be 

 otherwise than interesting to note here the results of a few of 

 those estimates. 



