Report on the American and Canadian Meat Trade. 309 
of a very superior order ; rich in all that make soils valuable 
to the farmer ; situated under a climate whose winter is less 
fickle and rigorous than our own ; land whose fee-simple 
purchase-money is about equivalent to what is paid per annum 
as rent and taxes of land in England. The inducements are of 
a purely commercial nature, and are governed by the laws of 
supply and demand. So, if the demand for them exists in 
England, the cattle will be produced in America. 
In the year 1840 it was computed that there were 14,971,586 
head of meat-cattle in the country ; by the year 1850 they had 
increased to 18,678,582 ; and in 1870 they were estimated to 
number 28,678,582. Here, as it would seem, the maximum for 
the present was reached, the supply having exceeded the demand ; 
and the natural consequence of excessive production now inter- 
vened. The cattle diminished in value first, and then in 
numbers. In the two years following 1870, there took place a 
considerable decrease in numbers, which was continued, though 
to a less extent, yet another year. After this the cattle began 
to rapidly increase again. The numbers are given as follows : — 
In 1870 there were 28,678,582 
„ 1872 „ „ 26,989,700 
„ 1873 „ „ 26,923,400 
„ 1875 „ „ 27,870,700 
In the first of these years, as it would appear, the balance 
between supply and demand had been interfered with by ex- 
cessive production, and a reaction had set in. Still, there 
can exist no doubt that, but for lack of demand, the ratio of 
increase which had held good up to the period of 1870 could and 
would have been maintained. But the demand fell off, and cattle 
could no longer be raised at profitable rates. At this stage it 
became the practice in the dairying districts to knock on the 
head large numbers of bull-calves as soon as they were calved, 
for the simple reason that, little as it was, they were worth more 
dead than alive ; to which may be added the then great advan- 
tage of having them out of the way altogether. The calves were 
boiled down for glue, or as food for the pigs, for gelatine, or for 
any profitable purpose which might suggest itself — anything, in 
fact, to get rid of them. Now, however, " the slaughter of the 
innocents " will diminish greatly, if not cease altogether, and 
they will be reared for ultimate consumption on English dinner- 
tables ! The result of this step, then, will of course be that, in 
three years' time, there will be an immense number of fat oxen 
available for exportation to England. 
Calves reared in the dairying districts of the Eastern States — 
the surplus of them, that is — can, if expedient, be easily conveyed 
by rail to the cattle " ranches " of Central America, where their 
