Imports of Agricultui^al Produce. 441 



comparatively small — about 100,000 cwts. in each instance; 

 but the amount of fresh pork consigned to this country, 

 although not in itself of great moment, was considerably 

 above the highest hitherto recorded, viz., 347,617 cwts. in 

 the previous year. 



Fresh beef, as usual, comes chiefly from the United States 

 (2,301,956 cwts.), the mutton from Australasia (i,934,io8cwts.)j 

 followed by Argentina (1,106,201 cwts.) ; it is to the latter 

 country that the increase is due, Australasia showing a 

 slight decline, for which the shipments from New South 

 Wales were responsible. Last year was the first in which 

 the Argentine shipments of fresh mutton attained a total of 

 a million cwts. 



The export of fresh pork from the United States appears 

 to be practically a new development within the last two 

 years only, for whereas that country had previously shipped 

 only a few thousand cwts. per annum, it in 1897 sent over 

 61,000 cwts., and last year 276,789 cwts., thus surpassing by 

 .54,000 cwts. the shipments from Holland, whence we had 

 usually hitherto derived two-thirds of our foreign supply. 



Of salt meat, bacon and hams also came in the largest 

 quantities hitherto noted, the former, in fact, surpassing the 

 previous highest by 14 per cent. The United States sent 

 4,087,389 cwts. of bacon, or practically half a million cwts. 

 more than in 1897, while the Canadian contribution of 

 537,879 cwts. was not very far from double the exports of the 

 previous year. Other kinds of salt meat also came in larger 

 •quantities than in 1897. 



The value per cwt. of all kinds of dead meat imported 

 works out exactly the same as in 1897 — viz., 36s. 6d. 



The imports of dairy produce, including margarine in this 

 group, show a distinct decline during the year, the total 

 weight of butter, cheese, and margarine being 6,508,420 cwts., 

 as compared with 6,757,523 cwts. in 1897, while the total value 

 ivas put at i^23,3 14,592 and ;^24,287,8o8 in these two years 

 respectively. 



The falling off in the receipts of butter, though slight and 

 amounting to 8,709 cwts. only, in this large section of our 



