THE FUTURE OF SHEEP FARMING. 187 



Historically, it undoubtedly is so, and yet the increase of 

 mouths calling for food in such periods is extraordinary to 

 think of. It is not too much to say that in ten years another 

 London is added to our own home consumption ! The popu- 

 lation of the United States doubles itself in twenty-five years, 

 and the rapid increase of the population of Australia and New 

 Zealand will probably in time require a much larger propor- 

 tion of their produce than at present. With regard to the 

 United States, we shall have another China in one hundred 

 years, at the present rate of increase, and the question is 

 rather how the human family is to be supported in another 

 century than one of a plethora of food production. 



(5) The upward tendency of wages, and the more uniform 

 distribution of wealth, is a feature of the present day. The 

 labouring population is no longer contented with bread, but 

 wants meat, and, what is more, gets it. There is no doubt 

 that comfort and plenty have descended to a strata which 

 formerly lived in comparative squalor and want. Just as 

 wheaten bread has taken the place of rye and barley meal, so 

 beef and mutton will more and more take the place of pork 

 and cheese, and thus a market will be found for all the 

 butcher's meat that can possibly be produced. A drop of id. 

 a pound in the price of meat must always call in tens of thou- 

 sands of buyers to check any further decline in value. 



Taking all these considerations into account, it seems then 

 hardly probable that any sudden increase in importations of 

 frozen mutton will overturn the home manufacture. 



A few years ago Mr. Finlay Dun returned from a trip to 

 America with glowing accounts, of the endless supplies of beef 

 which were about to inundate us. Later, his countryman, 

 Professor Wallace, returned from a tour in Australia, and 

 prophesied evil things of the sheep trade. It is more than 

 probable that his gloomy forebodings will also remain unful- 

 filled. No one ought to be more pleased than Professor 

 Wallace, if I am right. 



The immediate future of the English sheep-farmer is, it is 



