84 THE FARMER'S OUTLOOK 



production. Meat, especially frozen or chilled 

 meat, requires special transport facilities and a 

 complex organisation to render supplies available. 

 Natural reproduction cannot easily overtake an 

 increasing demand. With horned stock an annual 

 increase of 70 per cent, of the breeding stock is 

 as high as can be relied upon in the countries 

 from which we arc at present drawing our supplies. 

 Sheep cannot be regarded as much more prolific, 

 the greater tendency to ailments of various kinds 

 offsetting the higher natural increase. The 

 enormous supplies both of beef and mutton im- 

 ported into the United Kingdom have made con- 

 sumers oblivious to these fundamental conditions. 

 A shortage cannot fail to bring out the difficulty 

 of regaining an equilibrium when once it has been 

 disturbed. 



Our brief review has shown diminished sheep 

 flocks. Whether it be in such widely separated 

 countries as Argentina, Russia, the United States 

 or Canada, the cause for this decrease is the same : 

 the plough is displacing them. New Zealand, with 

 24,000,000, and Uruguay with some 26,000,000 

 sheep are the principal exceptions. Australia's 

 recent decline is mainly due to an unfavourable 

 season, a reminder of the terrible drought period 

 from which recovery has only recently been made. 

 In spite of this latest set-back, the Common- 

 wealth of Australia, with its 93,000,000 sheep, 



