TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 



843 



rise regularly with the growth of population, would leave a varying balance repre- 

 senting the home produce to fluctuate accordingly. 1 am, however, disposed to 

 ihiuk that there is quite as much to bo said as to a probable fluctuation in the 

 auiouut of meat consumed by our people one year with another, as may be urged 

 tor a tluctuation in tlu; ratio of production from the enumerated herds of any 

 ,ierioil, and at all events for comparative purposes I ofl'er the ri>sult of my own 

 Estimate, until by closer inquiries something better and more delinite is arrived at. 



The le.^sons of the diagram as it stands, taking flrst of all the various sections of the 

 supply in detail, are these. The production of ))eef has been nearly uniform, after the 

 lirst fouryears, 18G8-71, of the period. In these years our herds averaged 1){ million 

 head of cattle, yielding only 015,000 tans of meat a year. Since that time we have 

 neverraisod less than 651, COO tons, or more than 088,000 tons per annum — that largest 

 outturn occurring once only, in 1874, one of the proverbially ' fat years' of British 

 asriculture. Clearly, therefore, the native beef supply at all events has not kept 

 |ike with the population. The yearly ration of the British consumer, so far as 

 liome-produced beef is concerned, was 44^ lb. in 1808. It subsequently reached 

 indeed 47 lb. in 187^5-5, but speedily shrunk again to 42 lb. in 1882, and stood at 

 & lb. last year. Until 1 870 the foreign supply of beef imported alive only once 

 reached 4 lb. per head of our people ; usually the quota was nearer o lb. 'ince 

 that date the transatlantic trade in live animals has added materially to that U<-ure. 

 In 1880, 7 lb. of beef per head was imported ; in 1881 and 1882, owing to a si; Uer 

 iransatlantic supply, lb. was about the total, while last year about S^ i of 

 beef per head was obtained by imported live cattle. The salt beef impor ' is 

 quite an insignificant item. It furnished only '87 of a pound in 1868, and was just 

 t'uesame in 1883, and only once in sixteen years has it reached a pound per head. 

 The growth of the trade in fresh beef is very difl'erent. This branch of the d-^ad 

 meat trade now supplies England with more tons of meat than we received from 

 iiU the live cattle imported in 1808. The foreign fresh beef was then 227 tons 

 oniy, whereas in 1883 it was over 40,000, and a 10 per cent, further increase is 

 iliown in the first half of 1884. From being but a fiftieth part of a pound per 

 liead, it has risen to 2{ lb. per head. On the basis of these estimates it appears 

 that we eat some lb. more beef per head now than we did sixteen years ago, the 

 ooasumption having risen from about 48 lb. to 54 lb. per head, but notwithstanding 

 this two pounds less of each person's yearly ration is raised on our own soil. 



The state of the case as regards mutton cannot be determined with the same 

 accuracy, owing to the failure of the customs retiirns to indicate separately the 

 amount of our importations of fresh and preserved mutton. In this case, however, 

 the reduction in home supplies is very remarkable. The year 1808 showed larger 

 tlocks in the United Kingdom than have ever been enumerated since, so that 445,000 

 tons of mutton may be assumed to have been yielded from our pastures tiuit year, 

 enough to give each unit of the population an annual allowance of 82i lb. Only 

 ill one other year, 1874, did the homo supply reach 30 lb. a head, and since then 

 fliir flocks have been greatly reduced owing to the combined efi'ect of losses from 

 (iL>ease, especially that known as liver-fluke, the low value of wool, and the 

 generally impoverished condition of our farmers, so that on the same scale we 

 produced only 354,000 tons of mutton in 1883, equal to a ration of 22| lb. per 

 iiead. Nor has the loss in this case been supplied from abroad. The live imports 

 of sheep in 1808 were not quite equivalent to 10,000 tons of mutton or under 

 three quarters of a pound per head. This rose indeed to 30,800 tons in 1870, or 

 21b. ahead, but the supply fell ok again until 1882, when 31,000 tons were 

 received, and 1883, when 30,812 tons were accounted for. This is equivalent to 

 nitlier less than 2 lb. of foreign live mutton per head of our existing population. 

 The dead meat imports of mutton have never till the last few years been con- 

 siderable, and, as I have shown, they are not even now properly distinguished. The 

 'Special trade in frozen carcases of mutton, for the most part though not exclusively 

 from our Australasian colonies, largely as it has Is.aly been developed, only 

 furnished three quarters of a pound to each man, woman, and child in the year 

 1883. 



The supply of what I have called pig-meat — i.e., bacon, pork, and hams— ha» 



!!t 





