846 



KEPORT — 1884. 



\il 





from 7,000 to 53,200 head. The Scandinavian group of countries •wliich sen us 

 only o(i,000 head in 1874 increased steadily till their supply is now clo-;*' "pon 



117,000 1 ' " "* ■ ■ '" ^ ' 



Holland, 



of st ock i 



hoth absolutely and relatively to the whole supjjly to a distinctly inferior posjnon 

 as a source of heef provision to (Jreat Uritaiii, the total having fallen in lH7:)to 

 87,800 head, and standing' in 1883 at 118,000 head out of a total of 47;J,(I0(). 

 From having sent us four-tifths of all our foreigri cattle they are reduced to 

 providers of less than a fourth of the imports. Tliis change of trade is in a lari'e 

 measure due to the ])revalence of one form or another of contagious disease. The 

 Scandinavian countries by resolute efforts freed tlieiv territory from contagion and 

 reapi'd the reward in a healthy export trade. The relative freedom fnuii disca*, 

 which, except in a few districts of the United States, has distinguished the Aineriean 

 continent, has up to this time enabled Great Jiritain to purchase largely of the 

 surplus of the American and Canadian cattle men, hut on tlie other hand those 



SouRCKs OF Live Cattle Imports. 



No. of 

 Cattle 



300,000 



280,000 



2fiO,000 



210,000 



220,000 



200,000 



180,000 



100,000 



140,000 



120,000 



100,000 



80,000 



60,000 



40,000 



20,000 



1874 



I 



I 

 i 



i 



1875 



i 



I 



I 



I 



p 



1876 



ssA— 



• 



1877 



1873 



1879 



m 



1880 



m 



1681 



p:. 



1882 1883 



mri 



Uniti'd Static 

 ^^ iiiid Canada. 



Scandiiiaviiin 

 countries. 



fe^ All otiiev 

 ^ lountries. 



districts of the world wdiere disease is rife or imminent must be regarded by the 

 United Kingdom with more or less suspicion, and as the whole foreign supply 

 is but a fraction of the country's food, the llritish I'rivy Council is bound most 

 narrowly to watch and check importations even from suspected sources. The 

 live stock trade must for the future be carried on, if it is not to give place wlioUv 

 to one in dead meat, mainly with those countries who possess and cherish a clean 

 bill of health, and show themselves alert in keeping disease from their borders. 



I could show the same features in the case of our imports of sheep. Although 

 there has been nothhig like the same increase in the total receipts as in the case of 

 cattle in the past ten years, the sheep supplies from all quarters numbering i)8r),000 

 head in I87t), and 1,113,000 in 1883, the transatlantic share has risen from zero Ic 

 18,000 head, and tlie Scandinavian fre n 16,000 to 125,000, while the receipt? 

 from all other quarter.s which were not far from 800,000 head in 1874, are hut a 

 few thousands over that figure now. 



Of the whole live imports which Great llritain receives at the present time it 

 is instructive to note that a yearly ration of something like '^^\ lb, out of tlie whole 

 lO.J lb. comes from the United States, while Canada furnishes another \\ 11). for 

 each man, woman, and child in the United Kingdom, It cannot therefore be 

 inopportune to impress on a Canadian audience the lesson which these ticures 



