Breeding, Rearing, and Feeding Horses, Cattle, and Sheep. 7 
foreign producers cannot compete advantageously with the British 
feeders. These and other facts make the production of beef and 
mutton the British and Irish farmers' sheet-anchor. Some dead 
meat was received from abroad before 1842, but the introduction 
of foreign live animals into the United Kingdom dates from that 
year. For the first ten years the increase of foreign stock landed 
in Britain was slow ; indeed very little progress was made until 
1864, when more were imported for a few years. Again, from 
1868 till 1874 there was very little increase. In 1875 the 
numbers of foreign stock landed in the United Kingdom were 
swollen considerably, and are larger than in any previous year, 
notwithstanding the complaints raised in certain quarters that 
present restrictions are ruinous to the foreign trade. By the 
way, the importation of pork, bacon, and hams, is now, and has 
for some years been, on a much larger scale than it was less 
than twenty years ago. The following statistics (p. 8) show the 
progress that the importation of cattle, sheep, and pigs has made, 
and also the increase in the salt beef and pork, with the bacon 
and hams, received from abroad. 
The immense increase in the quantity of bacon and hams im- 
ported within the last three or four years raises the foreign per- 
centage of food now consumed in this country higher than I have 
hitherto seen it estimated. From calculations which I have en- 
deavoured to make I find that, including the bacon and hams, the 
foreign stuffs would amount to nearly 14 per cent, of the meat 
consumed in the United Kingdom. Excluding the bacon and 
ham, however, and reckoning only what comes in the form of 
live cattle, sheep, and pigs, and under the description of " beef" 
and '•' pork," I have made the foreign proportion about 6i per 
cent. Of course, in the absence of thoroughly reliable statistics 
as to the number of cattle, sheep, and pigs killed in this country 
annually, as well as their weights, my estimates must be re- 
garded only as an approximation to the actual quantity of meat 
furnished yearly by British and Irish feeders. 1 calculated that 
one-fourth of the cattle returned in the United Kingdom were 
killed annually, which would give 2,531,201 animals, and estima- 
mating their average weight at 6 cwt. 1 qr. each, we have 
15,820,006 cwts. of beef. Of the 33,414,297 sheep returned in 
the United Kinsfdom, I reckoned that 5-12ths were onlv once 
enumerated, or, in other words, went annually to the knife. 
Assuming that the average carcase is 70 lbs., the 5-12ths of the 
total number of sheep give us 8,701,451 cwt. of mutton. Sup- 
posing that as many pigs as are returned are killed annually, 
and calculating the average weight at 10 stone, we have 
4,348,941 cwt. of pork. This makes a total of 28,870,398 cwt. 
of butcher's meat annually supplied by our home herds and flocks. 
