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XXVIII. — The Supply of Meat to Large Towns. 

 By KoBEKT Herbekt. 



The comparative ease with which the metropolis was supplied 

 witli meat during the brief period when the movement of live 

 stock per road and railway was prohibited on account of the 

 cattle plague, has led many persons to assume that we are about 

 to commence a new system ; that live-cattle markets have become 

 unnecessary, and that henceforth it will be far more advantageous 

 for all parties concerned for London to be supplied with dead 

 meat rather than live stock. So many important interests are in- 

 volved in this question, that it becomes necessary to enter into a 

 few details in order to see whether such suggestions can be carried 

 out, and what might be their influence upon the price of meat, 

 which exhibits a more rapid increase than does the consumption. 



The statistical returns issued by order of the House of Com- 

 mons inform us that in the United Kingdom there are 8,316,960 

 oxen and cows, 25,794,708 sheep, and 3,800,399 pigs in the 

 hands of breeders, feeders, and graziers. If we assume the general 

 accuracy both of these figures and of earlier estimates, it follows 

 that the supply of beef has been kept up remarkably well during 

 the last twenty years, but that the number of sheep and pigs has 

 fallen off considerably. If the supply of sheep has declined, about 

 which I have no doubt whatever, the present dearness of butchers' 

 meat may be readily accounted for, and its cause is too deep 

 seated to be affected much by even increased importations of 

 foreign stock. 



If attention be directed to the ease with which London was 

 supplied during the time of the cattle plague, it must not be 

 overlooked that Ireland, and Holland, and other parts of the 

 Continent, forwarded large numbers of live cattle by water. 

 Again, the movement of sheep, lambs, and pigs was not inter- 

 fered with ; so that the experiment, if such it was, has not 

 as yet been fairly and fully tried. High prices were, indeed, 

 realised for dead meat in Newgate and Leadenhall markets in 

 March and April, but they were not of long continuance, and 

 Avere followed by a severe check, owing to the pressure of supply, 

 so that the returns to the owners of meat were much less than 

 could have been obtained in local markets, where, at one time, 

 prices were from 25 to 30 per cent, higher than in 1865. 



Let us suppose that the Metropolitan market for the sale of live 

 stock was abolished. The live stock imported from the Continent 

 would, of course, be slaughtered in abattoirs erected near the place 

 of landing — say at Blackwall. The supplies from Ireland Avould, 

 in all probability, be disposed of and slaughtered at Derby, from 



