Exports of British Live Stock. 



15 



The continued introduction of English blood stock into 

 Argentine herds has been an important factor in the 

 improvement of the native stock, and has enabled 

 breeders in that country to compete with increasing 

 success in the trade in beef cattle for the markets of the 

 United Kingdom. The original cattle of Argentina were 

 small, long-horned, thick-hided, slow-growing beasts, of 

 every conceivable colour. But for the last twenty years a 

 brisk reformation has taken place, and there are few herds 

 left now that do not own to some degree of English blood. 

 The most popular breed for crossing purposes is the Short- 

 horn, and this still continues to be most in demand. The 

 Hereford also has many advocates, and the live export trade 

 has drawn considerable attention to the polled Angus.* 

 There is no duty on cattle imported into the Republic for 

 breeding purposes, but the animals are subjected to the 

 tuberculin test on landing. Among minor outlets for 

 pedigree cattle in the five years under review were Chili, 

 Uruguay, and Australia. 



In addition to the trade in pedigree stock there is a 

 constant, though fluctuating, exportation on a small scale of 

 beef cattle, mainly to the Channel Islands. The number of 

 beasts shipped to this destination ranged from 2,300 to 2,800 

 head annually between 1894 and 1897, tut last year the 

 consignments numbered only 1,361 head. 



The improvement in the export trade in sheep is due, in 

 the main, to an incrsase in the demand by Argentine flocks 

 masters for English pure-bred animals. The consignments 

 to Argentina rose from 1,737 head valued at £22,400 in 1894, 

 to 8,237 head of the value of £1 19,600 in 1897, though in 1898 

 they dropped to 6,632 head declared to be worth £94,000 ; the 

 average value per head of these shipments over the whole 

 period of five years was £13 12s. The sheep stock in 

 Argentina appears to have received greater attention at the 

 hands of the breeder than either the cattle or horses. Up to 

 1883 the she^p were almost entirely of a Merino strain, but 

 about that period the frozen mutton industry was first 

 instituted, and the breeders, finding the carcase of the 



* See Foreign Office Report, Miscellaneous Series, No. 369. 1895. 



