234 



THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. 



" The decrease in cattle is due to shortness in supplies from the United 

 States and Canada, while the small increase in sheep is likewise due to 

 those countries. No pigs were imported in 1907, or 1906, though a 

 small lot arrived in 1905. The number of decreases in dead meat items 

 is even greater than it was for 1906 ; but it will be seen that the 

 increases overbalance them in quantity, making the total of dead meat 

 greater than it was in that year, a ' record ' one up to its date. Fresh 

 beef and mutton both reached the maximum in 1907 ; but they are the 

 only single items in the table that did so. Both have increased almost 

 regularly for a long time, the growth of mutton imports having been 

 checked only twice in twenty-three years. The latter item shows by 

 far the greatest increase appearing in the last column. Babbits had 

 increased annually for fourteen years up to 1906, but have now fallen 

 off considerably. The decline in butter has taken place in spite of 

 increases from Eussia, Denmark, Sweden, New Zealand, and Australia, 

 supplies from the United States having become quite insignificant last 

 year, and those from Canada small. Fluctuations in cheese are so 

 common that they do not call for much notice, though it may be worth 

 while to point out that Canada and the United States are accountable 

 for the decrease in 19C7. Denmark, Belgium, and France share in the 

 unusual decline in eggs. 



" In converting cattle and sheep into their equivalents in dead meat, 

 the usual plan of allowing ninety stones of 8 Ib. for cattle, sixteen for 

 calves, and seven and a half for sheep has been followed, while the 

 proportion of calves to full-grown cattle is assumed to have been the 

 same as it was on the average in the last three years in which calves 

 were separately enumerated : 



LIVE AND DEAD MEAT IMPORTS. 



" The totals are given in the next table for the eighteen years for 

 which this compilation has been made. 



