FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 115 



went annually to the butcher, and Mr. J. W. Pease, M.P., 

 in a later paper read before the South Durham and 

 North Yorkshire Chamber of Agriculture at Darlington, 

 in 1878, assumed the same proportion. This would give 

 for 1883 2,600,000 animals, the whole number of cattle in 

 the United Kingdom in that year being over 10,400,000. 

 These may be estimated to weigh 600 lbs. per head, 

 equal to 13,928,571 cwt. The total foreign imports in 

 that year were 288,530 head of cattle. These would 

 average 520 lbs. per head, or 1,339,603 cwt.; besides this 

 we received 764,260 cwt. of dead meat from America 

 and the Continent. This refers alone to the supply of 

 beef. 



Agricultural returns recently issued contain some in-i 

 teresting estimates of the respective average weights of 

 the animals imported from various countries. Cattle : 

 Danish, 560 lbs., French, 828 lbs., Schleswig-Holstein, 

 and Netherlands, 680 lbs., Norwegian and Swedish, 

 624 lbs., Portuguese, 692 lbs., Spanish, 568 lbs., Canadian, 

 720 lbs.. United States, 808 lbs. 



Cattle in Atjstkalasia (Returns op 1883). 



The very large number of cattle and sheep in Aus- 

 tralia not only makes meat cheap, but it is impossible 

 to consume the flesh for food. Sheep are not now boiled 

 down as formerly, simply for their tallow ; strong efforts 

 are being made to obtain a field for their consumption 

 by exportation as frozen cargoes of meat, and preserved 

 or tinned. The • exports of preserved meat from the 



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