254 GRAZING CATTLE DISEASES 



derelict. A small body of graziers would probably reap a 

 temporary advantage, as they did prior to 1892, but to their 

 ultimate undoing, and at the expense of the much larger bodies 

 of breeders on the one hand, and of consumers on the other. 

 The result of the introduction of Scotch-fed Canadian beef into 

 the London market was to lower the general price of the best 

 Scotch beef, and drive butchers, who could no longer rely on the 

 uniform quality of beef from the North, to supply theirWest-end 

 customers, but not at any reduction of price, from the best 

 American chilled hind quarters that could be depended 

 upon. 



With the reduction of the commercial cattle-breeding 

 industry of the country, and the development of the depend- 

 ence of graziers and other feeders upon a foreign supply of 

 cattle which natural circumstances would restrict to the 

 United States and Canada, conditions entirely suitable for 

 the operations of the all-powerful butchers' rings that 

 effectually control the meat markets of the United States 

 would be established, to the injury of the consumer as well 

 as to the ruin of the home producer. 



But the injury to the breeders of pedigree stock one of 

 the greatest and most treasured industries of the country 

 would be incalculable. At the present time this country 

 possesses the most comprehensive variety of herds, studs, and 

 flocks in the whole world, which it supplies with annual casts 

 of breeding animals at high prices. The more demand there is 

 from abroad, the greater is the encouragement to breeders to 

 produce better stock in greater numbers. There is little 

 wisdom, commercial knowledge, or breeding experience 

 behind the arguments that our flocks, herds, and studs are 

 being depleted by the sale of picked animals to foreign 

 customers. Our animals of superior quality are too numer- 

 ous for any probable foreign demand to have an appreciable 

 influence upon those left behind. And as it will always be 

 necessary for the foreigner to come back to the fountain-head 

 of British breeds to replenish his stocks, which in new 

 surroundings have an inherent tendency to diverge from the 

 original types, the greater the success of the foreign breeder 

 the better will it be for the home producers of high-class 

 pedigree stock. To maintain and develop the trade, foreign 

 purchasers must be guaranteed against risk from contagious 



