SOCIAL AND ECONOMICAL ASPECTS 179 



point, and some of the allegations were so monstrous 

 in their absurdity that it is difficult to believe that 

 they were seriously entertained by those who made 

 them. An instance of this has been already quoted, 

 but here are some others. One witness gravely in- 

 formed the Committee that the substitution of deer 

 for sheep in certain districts of Scotland had the effect 

 of raising the price of mutton to the extent of $d. or 

 4</. a Ib. It was shown to him during the course of 

 his examination that this could not be the case, see- 

 ing that the source of supply from these converted 

 sheep-farms was infinitesimal compared with that 

 derived from the rest of Great Britain and from 

 foreign countries ; but it never seemed to occur to this 

 gentleman, who was himself a large sheep-farmer, that 

 if he believed in his own story he was the last person 

 who ought to have complained of a process which 

 added 50 per cent, to his profits. 



Another witness declared that he spent as a sheep- 

 farmer, in wages and other ways, ten times as much 

 money as a shooting tenant would do ; while a third 

 wanted to credit a farm, not with the value of the wool 

 as taken from the sheep's back, but with the finished 

 article in the shape of cloth ; and, as regards the 

 carcase, he was not content with the price paid by the 

 feeder to the farmer, but insisted on taking as the 



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