Ttcenty Years' Changes in our Foreign Meat Supplies. 469 
Period. 
Meat from 
Live 
Animals 
imported. 
Dead Meat 
imported. 
Total aver- 
age Yearly 
importation. 
Percent- 
age of 
Dead 
Meat to 
Total 
Imports. 
Mean 
Population. 
Rat*^ per 
bead of 
import- 
ed Meat. 
tons. 
tons. 
tons. 
0/ 
% 
No. 
lb. 
A.verage oi ls07-»-y .. 
OD, OUU 
lib, bUU 
48 
OA OnO AAA 
8 O 
1870-1-2 .. 
76,500 
100,000 
176,500 
57 
31,563,000 
12-5 
„ 1873-4-5 .. 
79,700 
180,100 
259,800 
09 
32,506,000 
17-9 
„ 1876-7-8 .. 
90,41)0 
245,900 
336,300 
73 
33,573,000 
22-4 
„ 1879-80-1 
118,100 
354,900 
473,000 
75 
34,626,000 
30-6 
„ 1882-3-4 .. 
144,100 
274,700 
418,800 
65 
.35,624,000 
26-3 
„ 1885-6 .. 
125,500 
334,900 
460,400 
73 
36,519,000 
28-2 
In the aggregate, therefore, the foreign meat supply has multi- 
plied four-fold in twenty years, but that portion of it which 
reaches us alive has only doubled in this interval, while the dead- 
meat imports are six times as great as they were in 1867-9. 
They did not then represent one-half of what we received : now 
practically three pounds out of every four are thus imported. 
Looking at the table as a whole, the continuous growth of 
imports in the three-year periods up to that ending with 1881 
is sufficiently striking. From eating 8^^ lb. each of foreign 
meat in 1867-9, we came to eat lb. in 1879-81. The 
remarkable check in the next following triennium was, it will be 
seen, one of dead meat only, for between 1882-4, our live 
imports showed a considerable increase. In the two last years 
I the live imports receded materially, and it does not appear 
likely that in the current year, 1887, they will even reach the 
i average of 1879-81, although the dead-meat trade has gone up 
in 1885-6 once more very nearly to the level of that period. 
In no single year, however, it may be remarked, since 1880, 
when over 517,000 tons were accounted for, has this country 
received so large an import of live and dead meat collectively 
[ as was then landed. It would seem as if that season saw the 
maximum of the dead-meat imports, although it was not till 
three years later, or 1883, that the largest arrivals of live animals 
were reported — the equivalent of 166,000 tons being imported 
in this form. 
A glance at the population column of the table reminds us of 
the fact that in round numbers we had six millions more persons 
to feed at the end than at the beginning of the period under 
review. The diagram given on page 471 shows how far the 
British farmer and the foreign producer have shared the business 
of supplying the wants of that population. 
To show the relation which our yearly imports bear to the 
home produce of the United Kingdom, a somewhat arbitrary 
2 I 2 
