44^ History of the English Landed Interest. 



possible for the grazier to convey without loss his livestock 

 ripe for the butcher ? Hudson, the Holkham farmer already 

 alluded to, told Caird that in the days when he had to drive 

 his fat beasts to the London markets a sheep often lost 10 lbs., 

 and a bullock 28 lbs. on the way, which was a waste equivalent 

 in value to upwards of £600 on the quantity of stock he an- 

 nually sent up ; and corroborative of this statement is a letter 

 written by a Mr. W. Macro, of Barrow, who drove six fat 

 Galloway Scots up to the London Smithfield, a distance of 

 eighty miles, and found that on their arrival the average loss 

 of weight was one stone per head.^ When, however, Caird 

 wrote, railways had opened up the whole country, steamers 

 sailed from every port, and MacAdam had revolutionised road- 

 mending. 



* Annals of Agriculture, vol. iii. p. 491. 



