846 



EEPOKT — 1884. 



from 7,600 to 53,200 head. The Scandinavian group of countries -which sent us 

 only 36,000 head in 1874 increased steadily till their supply is now close upon 

 147,000 head. On the other hand, those older countries, such as France, Belgium, 

 Holland, Germany, Spain and Portugal, whence ten years since we drew 156,500 head 

 of stock out of 193,000, have, after a very slight increase in 1875 and 1876, dropped 

 both absolutely and relatively to the whole supply to a distinctly inferior position 

 as a source of beef provision to Great Britain, the total having fallen in 1879 to- 

 87,800 head, and standing in 1883 at 118,000 head out of a total of 473,000. 

 From having sent us four-fifths of all our foreign cattle they are reduced to 

 providers of less than a fourth of the imports. This change of trade is in a large 

 measure due to the prevalence of one form or another of contagious disease. The 

 Scandinavian countries by resolute efforts freed their territory from contagion and 

 reaped the reward in a healthy export trade. The relative freedom from disease, 

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

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

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



Sources of Live Cattle Imports. 



No. of 

 Cattle 



300,000 



280,000 



260,000 



240,000 



220,000 



200,000 



180,000 



160,000 



140,000 



120,000 



100,000 



80,000 



60,000 



40,000 



20,000 



^ 



United States 

 and Canada. 



Scandinavian 

 countries. 



All otter 

 Dountries. 



districts of the world where 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 British Privy 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 wholly 

 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 nothing 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 985,000 

 head in 1876, and 1,113,000 in 1883, the transatlantic share has risen from zero to 

 18,000 head, and the Scandinavian from 16,000 to 125,000, while the receipts 

 from all other quarters which were not far from 800,000 head in 1874, are but a 

 few thousands over that figure now. 



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

 is instructive to note that a yearly ration of something like 3| lb. out of the whole 

 10i lb. comes from the United States, while Canada furnishes another 1| lb. 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 figures 





