534 Abstract Report of Agricultural Discussions. 



A great deal of what had been said iu the way of complaint ou 

 that subject was perhaps due to a want of consideration of the 

 difference between a wholesale trade and a retail one. They might 

 rest assured that their northern brethern very well understood their 

 own interest, and that if the farmers and cattle-dealers of Aberdeen- 

 shire and the districts around were satisfied with the existing traffic 

 by railway, both as regarded the charges made for conveyance and 

 the state of the meat when it reached its destination, there could 

 be no gi'eat reason for complaint. It might fairly be assumed, he 

 thought, that after a time the charges for the conveyance of dead- 

 meat would not be such as to prevent the trade from being properly 

 carried on. At present a man comjjared the charge for conveying 

 a live animal with the charge for conveying a dead animal. He 

 forgot that when animals were conveyed alive there were eight or 

 ten in the same truck ; whereas, under the existing state of things, the 

 railway company had to convey one carcase, or it might be a quarter 

 of a carcase. It would be impossible for the company to provide 

 carrying-power for so small a quantity, sent to a station as it were 

 hap-hazard, or to charge at the same rate for such a quantity as 

 when a whole truck was hired and filled. If it should be found 

 necessary in order to supply the wants of the country that dead 

 meat should be conveyed on a largely increased scale, the charges 

 would no doubt be adjusted to the altered state of things. Farmers 

 would soon find out how to obtain the benefit of wholesale charges. 



He, for one, felt much obliged to the gentlemen who had taken part 

 in the discussion. Lord Cathcart seemed to have collected a great 

 deal of information on several points which might be usefully dis- 

 .cussed ; and no doubt both his lordship's remarks and those of Mr. 

 Herbert would be published in the Society's ' Jom-nal.' 



A vote of thanks was accorded to Mr. Herbert, and the meeting 

 then separated. 



Meeiinq of WeeMy Council, Wednesday, June ISth. Mr. Hutton in 

 the Chair. Dr. Wm. Fare, M.D., F.R.S., Chief Superintendent of the 

 Statistical branch of the Eegistrar-General's Department, delivered a 

 lecture on Cattle Statistics and Cattle Insurance. 



Insurance of Live Stock. 



Dr. Farr said : England is not so much celebrated for its cereal 

 crops as for its fine stock of cattle. The bulls, oxen, cows in calf, 

 and heifers, always please the people at the shows of the Eoyal 

 Agricultural Society. Although the English farmer is little given to 

 sentiment, he does take a just pride in the herd which he has bred or 

 chosen with care, and feels their imtimely death much more aciitely 

 than he would a deficiency of crop or the destruction of grain of 

 equivalent value. There is another soiu'ce of anxiety in cattle — while 

 agricultural stock is insiu'ed against fire, the live stock of the kingdom, 

 in the hands of at least half a million o\^'ners, and worth upwards of 

 140 million pounds sterling, is, for reasons which I will shortly 



