152 



IMPORTS OF THE CEREAL YEAR. 



The following statement, which has been compiled from 

 the Trade and Navigation Returns, shows the quantities and 

 values of the principal articles of agricultural produce 

 imported into the United Kingdom during the cereal year 

 which has just closed, together with the imports for the 

 corresponding period of 1895-96. The chief changes in the 

 import trade in the two periods compared may be briefly 

 reviewed under the divisions of meat, dairy produce, and 

 grain. 



In the case of meat there was a noticeable reduction in the 

 number of live sheep imported in the past cereal year, the 

 entries having been fewer by over 312,000 head than in the 

 preceding twelve months. This decline was mainly due to 

 the smaller consignments from the United States and Canada, 

 which were respectively 188,000 head and 121,000 head short 

 of those of 1895-96. An increase of about 220,000 cwts. in the 

 receipts of imported fresh mutton from Australasia, Argentina 

 and Holland, compensated, however, for the diminution in the 

 transatlantic shipments of live sheep. The supply of foreign 

 beef, both on the hoof and dead, exceeded that of 1895-96, 

 owing chiefly to the larger consignments of live cattle and 

 fresh beef from Canada and the United States. To the 

 latter country we are also indebted for an increase of 

 870,000 cwts. in the imports of bacon and hams. 



The principal features in the imports of grain are the 

 diminution shown in the supply of wheat and the continua- 

 tion of the upward movement in the importation of maize, 

 which has been a characteristic of our Trade Returns for 

 some few years. The quantity of wheat and of wheat-meal 

 and flour imported in the past year was equivalent to 

 21,660,000 quarters of grain, as compared with an importa- 



