• 19:^0.] Accounts of a Hampsiiirk Fukk in igrS-19. 129 



very handsome, they have by no means increased in proportion 

 to the costs of raising and managing the flock. The costs have 

 certainly been trebled, but the increase in the average price of 

 pedigree stock, great as it is, has been by no means on that 

 scale. The stock sold for breeding, however, though one of the 

 largest items in the receipts, by no means accounts for all the 

 return, and a considerable part of the income of a flock is that 

 derived from the lambs not fit for breeding and the cast ewes. 



This is the only source of income in an ordinary flock that 

 does not sell rams, and has as regards arable sheep been most 

 adversely affected by the operations of control. It may be 

 agreed that a fiat price for mutton and lamb was inevitable under 

 control, but it has borne very hardly upon sheep of the Hampshire 

 class, indeed upon all the Down breeds. Breeders have 

 relied for their income very largely upon the sale of lamb, from 

 which they derived a special price in consideration of the time 

 at w^hich it is produced and the heavy artificial feeding involved. 

 All these advantages have disappeared. The Hampshire lambs 

 ready for market from May onwards have been selling at 10 s. ()d. 

 per stone, making about 60s. a head under control, as compared 

 with about 7s. a stone or 40s. a head in the days before the War. 



When one considers that the costs of production have at 

 least trebled the reason for the losses in connection with 

 a flock like this is evident. The mutton, sheep and lambs 

 of this flock have averaged not more than 73s. a head, a 

 figure which is quite inadequate as compared with the costs 

 of production. Moreover, this failure to realise the proper 

 price for lamb has re-acted upon the price for ram lambs. All 

 the arable-land sheep have been hard hit and have seriously 

 diminished in numbers during the period of control. Between 

 1 913 and 1 91 9 the average numbers of sheep in the country 

 have fallen by 117 per cent., but this loss has fallen almost 

 entirely upon the sheep on arable land, whereas the grass sheep 

 have pretty well maintained their numbers. For example, 

 Hampshire in 1913 contained 266,231 sheep, in 1919 165,657, 

 a fall of 37*8 per cent., w^hereas during the same period in 

 Cardigan, a county of grass -land sheep only, the numbers 

 actually increased. The map which is here reproduced shows 

 by its shading the changes in the sheep population of each 

 county of England and Whales during the war period. It will 

 be observed that the losses in the numbers of sheep are com- 

 paratively small over the western and southern parts of the 

 country where grass sheep are mainly kept, but that they are 

 very great in the arable counties in the east of England and 



K 



