Market Conditions and Production 81 



important and increasing item. It increased enormously just after 

 the great fall in corn and meat-prices, that is to say after 1880, as the 

 following figures will show 1 . They refer, however, only to the export 

 of pedigree cattle certificated by breeding associations. 



Years Pedigree horses Do. cattle Do. sheep 



1876-80 3606 626 2818 



1881-85 66l 9 34 8 S 2 77 



1896-1900 32,909 3335 8765 



The value of the animals exported increased even more rapidly*. 

 In 1908 the United Kingdom exported 53,094 horses, 3895 head of 

 cattle, 5919 sheep, and 700 swine. Since England imports meat and 

 cattle of the poorer qualities these exports can only be of pedigree or 

 herd-book stock or at any rate beasts of some special breed. Their 

 value was about ;i,ooo,ooo 3 . An industry which develops such an 

 export trade obviously can no longer be conducted, as breeding once 

 was, by amateurs for the sake of sport or luxury. It is in fact 

 practised by capable farmers of all classes, and not for the sake of 

 luxury, but for profit. The prices paid for herd-book cattle show 

 how high these profits may be. The average price of short-horns 

 sold at shows rose from 27. i$s. lod. per head in 1898 to 36. $s. 4^. 

 in 1902*. Well-known breeders obtained prices which might seem 

 incredible to foreigners. Some received an average of 70 for their 

 short-horn cows, and sold their bulls abroad for ^500 to .800. 

 Pedigree Yorkshire pigs made 12 to 2$ a head 5 . And breeders of 

 pedigree cattle not only got higher prices than the ordinary farmer 

 for their first-class beasts, but for all the cattle in their herd, even 

 the least valuable, so long as they could be used for breeding pur- 

 poses. Accordingly an increasing number of farmers devoted 

 themselves to this profitable branch of agriculture, with what results 

 may be seen in Mr (now Sir) F. A. Channing's Report of 1897* and 

 other authorities of the period 7 . In 1905 Mr Matthews wrote: "The 

 best hope for British graziers lies in improving the standard of quality, 



1 H. Levy, Landwirtschaftlicher Export in England, in Conrad 's* Jahrbiichern, 1903, 

 p. 398. 



2 Ibid. 



3 Trade and Navigation Accounts, 1908, pp. i^Sf. and u6f. 



4 Cp. The Tinus of Dec. 7, 1903, p. 3. 



5 The figures were given by Mr Philo Mills, a farmer of Ruddington, Notts. 



6 Final Report, p. 254. 



7 Cp. Matthews, op. cit. p. 3. 



L. 6 



