Consumption in the Metropolis. 



499 



Having shown the fluctuations in the percentage of stock 

 exhibited in 1838 compared with 1858, we have now to direct 

 attention to the demand for, and value of, live stock in the 

 metropolitan cattle market during the past six months. In that 

 period the consumptive demand has increased — the quality of 

 the supplies has been tolerably good, though not to say first-rate 

 — and the quotations have ruled remarkably firm. But it may 

 be observed that nearly the same state of trade prevailed in the 

 corresponding periods of the five previous years, as will be seen 

 by the annexed comparative table : — 



Average Prices of Beef and Muttox in the L.\st Six Months. 

 Per 8 lbs., to sink the offal. 



With the exception of 1853, the supplies of beasts exiiibited 

 in the last six months of 1858 were largest, and those of sheep 

 were tolerably good, as is thus shown :■ — 



Supplies of each kind of Stock Exhibited and Sold in the Last Six 

 MoxTHS of the followincr Years : — 



Beasts 



Cows 



Sheep and lambs 

 Calves 



1853. 



149,008 

 3,191 



860,800 

 17,058 

 15,284 



1854. 



130,216 

 3,157 



853,020 

 1 (5 , 490 

 19,531 



1855. 



1.33,577 

 3,185 



751,818 

 14,810 

 22,350 



1856. 



138,309 

 2,864 



689,444 

 14,280 

 18,733 



1857. 



137,915 

 2,948 



701,414 

 15,006 

 14,992 



1858. 



147,113 

 3, 1.-57 



746,839 

 15,186 

 19,441 



This statement shows that the supplies of both beasts and 

 sheep exhibited last year were somewhat extensive. We find, 

 however, that in the last six months of 1853, 140,008 beasts and 

 860,800 sheep were on offer, against 147,118 of the former and 

 746,839 of the latter last year in the same period ; but this de- 

 ficiency has arisen from the enormous trade now carried on in the 

 wholesale dead meat markets, which draw largely upon our 

 agricultural districts, as well as upon Scotland. This compe- 



