and the Cattle Census. 



400 



Of horses, McCulloch estimated there were 1,500,000 in Great 

 Britain, employed for various purposes of pleasure and utility. 

 Earl Lovelace, however, remarks that ponies and exempted horses 

 are omitted from McCulloch's estimate, and thinks it probable we 

 have not less than 2,000,000 horses of all sorts. 



But without going into the particulars of the various estimates 

 which have been from time to time made, it will be convenient 

 to bring the different accounts into tabular comparison as far as 

 possible. 



From this Table we are enabled to see in what degree the 

 recent census supports the estimates of former years ; and the 

 result of the comparison, so far as cattle are concerned, is on the 

 whole tolerably satisfactory, iVIr, Colquhoun's estimate of cattle 

 in 1812 is the only one of the three which is out of all judgment : 

 and if Mr. McCulloch had not assumed an increase of a million 

 on Arthur Young's estimate (1790), he would have been very 

 near the correct figure. The estimate of the Poor Law Board 

 (1854) was arrived at by assuming that, as they had returns from 

 eleven counties, the remainder might be supposed to possess stock 

 in proportion to their area ; and, singularly enough, this pre- 

 sumption, which is certainly not in accordance with subsequent 

 observation, brought out a result which was a very near approxi- 

 mation to the truth. One point seems pretty clearly established, 

 viz., that our stock of cattle is not on the increase, but rather the 

 reverse, though no positive conclusion can be drawn on this 

 point until we have seen how subsequent enumerations tally with 

 the one recently taken. By limiting the returns to the owners of 

 not less than three-acre holdings, a considerable number of cattle 

 have of course been omitted over and above those belonging to 

 recalcitrant owners who declined to send in returns ; and it would 

 probably not be unsafe to reckon the actual cattle stock of England 

 and Wales at the present time at about 4,000,000, 



We have no means of knowing how far the actual number of 

 horses in England agrees with the estimates of 1812, 1847, and 



* ' Food Supplies of Western Europe,' by Joseph Fisher, p. 251. 

 t ' Statistical Account of the British Empire,' vol. i. 



X 'Reports of Poor Law Inspectors on Agricultural Statistics of England, 1854,' 

 page 2. 



