SECRETARY'S REPORT. 97 



its proportionable cousumptioii is evidently increasing; the 

 difference may be largely attributed to circumstance, which has 

 led to habit and habit regulates the appetite to a great extent. 

 The circumstances may be partly these; that until within a very 

 few years we have never had any of the real mutton sheep to eat ; 

 our old native stock was poor, and the merino infinitely worse ; 

 the sheep formerly killed were too often old and poor, and the 

 cheapness of the animals too frequently brought them as food to 

 those who were compelled to eat them ; farm-laborers, servants, 

 apprentices, and others, learned to thoroughly dislike mutton, 

 and many a man and woman so far advanced as to have perliaps 

 every other recollection of school days wiped from the memory, 

 still retain in the most lively manner the disgust created by 

 the inevitable, daily'rautton of the boarding-house; — with them 

 *' the full soul loatheth the honey-comb." 



The experiments of Dr. Beaumont, and other physiologists, 

 show that mutton is more nutritious, digests more easily and 

 assimilates more readily to the system, than any other meat we 

 are in the habit of consuming. 



While mutton is regarded as the most nutritious meat, it also 

 is the most economical to purchase at the usual prices. English 

 chemists and philosophers by a series of careful experiments, 

 find that 100 pounds of beef, in boiling, lose 26|^ pounds, in 

 roasting, 32 pounds, and in baking 80 pounds, by evaporation 

 and loss of soluble matter, juices, water and fat. Mutton lost 

 by boiling, 21 pounds, and by roasting, 24 pounds ; or in another 

 form of statement, a leg of mutton costing raw, 15 cents, would 

 cost boiled and prepared for the table, 18i- cents per pound ; 

 boiled fresh beef would at the same price, cost 19^ cents per 

 pound, sirloin of beef raw, at 16|- cents, costs roasted, 24 cents, 

 while a leg of mutton at 15 cents, would cost roasted, only 22 

 cents. 



These facts have not only been long known and demonstrated 

 by English and French philosophers, but have been actually and 

 practically understood by the people, and certainly are worthy 

 the consideration of our own countrymen. 



The taste for, and consumption of mutton, will increase 

 according to the quantity and quality of the production. Mutton 

 can be raised much cheaper than beef or pork. Mr. Mcchi says 

 he is " convinced that beef must sell 20 per cent, higher than 



