240 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 



breeding flocks on account of the ' rot.* The proceeds in 1810 are given 

 as follows : 



Lamb sold beginning of July 

 Ewe sold beginning of October 

 Fleece ..... 



Total . . . . 



Deduct the price paid for ewe 



Leaves for a year's keeping 



To show that our large autumn movements of ewes to distant 

 parts of the country had their counterpart more than a century ago, 

 I may mention that Welsh ewes were largely used in South-East England 

 for fat lamb production. I am inclined to think that the fat lamb 

 industry was of relatively greater importance at the beginning of the 

 nineteenth century than it was in the latter part of the century. The 

 general development of agriculture, and particularly of root growing, 

 during the first half of the century, encouraged the keeping of lambs for 

 fattening on roots during the winter, and of yearlings to be fed on clover 

 leys during the summer. In any case, most of us know from our own 

 experience that up to quite recently little early lamb was marketed, and 

 the meat most commonly consumed was that of young sheep ranging from 

 about six months to eighteen months in age, whilst in the hill districts, 

 and also in some lowland districts, wethers were kept until they were three 

 or four years old. This is now a thing of the past. Two years ago the 

 Ministry of Agriculture, in addition to the usual June census, collected 

 figures for numbers of stock in January. The following table brings out 

 clearly the fact that now the majority of lambs in England and Wales 

 are slaughtered before reaching the age of eight or nine months. The 

 number of lambs under one year in June was nearly 7 millions, and less 

 than half that number in the following January. Of the 3 -4 millions then 

 returned, probably not less than i million would be ewe lambs intended 

 for breeding purposes, so that of 6 million lambs not intended for breeding, 

 3I millions left our farms between June and December. Actually, this 

 underestimates the sale of early lambs because the spring lambs sold in 

 April and May ought to be added to the June figures, whilst from the 

 January number should be taken the autumn lambs born in the south of 

 England and the store lambs purchased from Scotland. 



