14 AGRICULTURE AND TARIFF REFORM. 



2s. lOd., respectively. These prices show the 

 diminution ranged up to 40 per cent, in price 

 if we put the figures of 1876 to 18T8 as repre- 

 senting 100 in each case. 



Store and Fat Cattle. 



Store cattle, like beef, have also declined, for 

 Avhereas in 1882, for example, good store cattle 

 realised £16 a head, they only realised <£13 a 

 head ten years later, and the reduction, which 

 has been even lower since, was by no means 

 confined to one district of the country, but was 

 quite general. 



Sheep, too, in spite of fluctuations, showed, 

 both as regards fat and store stock, a steady 

 depreciation up to the time of the report of the 

 Royal Commission ; since Avhich period the 

 evidence all goes to show that prices have not 

 improved. Up to 1894, hoAvever, there had been 

 a very marked decline, which varied from 21 to 

 33 per cent., according to the class of sheep sold. 

 Turning to the official records of the Metropolitan 

 Cattle Market, we find that first quality sheep, 

 per stone of 8 lb., realised on the triennial 

 average, 18T6 to 1878, 6s. lid., whilst in 1893 to 

 1895 this price had descended to 5s. 9d., and in 

 1903 it was 5s. lOd. ; second quality and inferior 

 quality making in the first triennal period 6s. 6d. 

 and 5s. 5d. respectively, and in the second 

 triennial period 5s. Id. and 3s. 9d. respectively; 

 whilst in 1903 the figures were 5s. Id. and 3s. 8d. 



In the case of pork, neither the agricultural 



