218 



SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



the decade ending in 1900, and in that year imports amounted to an 

 estimated total of 378,257 tons. By 1913 they had increased to 499,108 

 tons, practically the whole of which was imported as dead meat — only 

 14,743 live cattle entering our ports in that year. 



In 1926 imports of beef into Great Britain and Northern Ireland 

 amounted to 721,358 tons in addition to 79,950 cattle (excluding those 

 from the Irish Free State), an increase of over 130 per cent, from 1890. 



In the case of mutton, imports have increased from 95,702 tons in 

 1890 to 274,825 tons in 1926, an increase of nearly 190 per cent. 



The position of British Agriculture during the past fifty years may be 

 summed up by saying that arable farming has declined greatly in face 

 of trans-oceanic competition, while live stock has been maintained in 

 the face of almost equally severe competition from the Argentine and the 

 New World. 



From the agricultural point of view this indicates that in the British 

 Isles live stock is the most important economic factor and has always been 

 the farmers' sheet-anchor, enabling them during periods of agricultural 

 depression and low prices to pull through until the position improved. 

 During the present depression certain branches of live stock have been 

 well maintained, so far as prices are concerned, compared with pre-war 

 values. I refer chiefly to pigs, sheep, store cattle, dairy products, poultry 

 and eggs. If we compare the average increase in value of crops and live 

 stock including their products for the period 1922-26 with the period 

 1911-13, as shown by the figures published by the Ministries of Agriculture 

 in England and Wales and in Northern Ireland, we find that in England 

 and Wales there is an excess of fifteen points in favour of live stock and 

 live stock products as compared with tillage, the corresponding figure for 

 Northern Ireland being twenty-six. 



Index Figures of Prices of Live Stock and Live Stock 

 Products and of Crops. 



1911-13=100. 



Advantage in favour of 

 Live Stock . . 



15 points 26 points 



