320 Report on the American and Canadian Meat Trade. 
It is estimated that we consume annually 100 lbs. of meat per 
head of our population ; and if our population may be estimated 
at thirty-six millions, we thus eat 3,600,000,000 lbs. of flesh in 
one year. Now, if the Americans eat no more per head of 
population than we do — and we may take this for granted — it 
follows that 
lbs. of flesh-food per annum. 
The Americans produce .. .. 8,680,000,000 
„ „ eat 4,400,000,000 
„ „ can spare.. .. 4,280,000,000 
The surplus of animal food available for exportation from the 
United States is thus greater than the whole quantity which is 
eaten in the British Islands. Consequently we have no need to 
be anxious about our supplies from the Continent of Europe, 
even if Continental live cattle are eventually prohibited on 
account of the diseases they bring us. Diseases finally excluded 
from the country, our own flocks and he,rds would rapidly 
increase, and these, coupled with the American supply, would, 
if necessary, make us thoroughly independent of Continental 
meat, while the public would be supplied at lower prices than 
they now have to pay. And, beyond the quantities mentioned 
above, we must remember that Canada is already a large meat- 
producing State, and that she bids fair to rival, in the course of 
time, the United States themselves in this department. She is 
already sending us large numbers of live cattle of excellent 
quality, besides a considerable quantity of dead meat ; and her 
exports will increase in more rapid proportion than those of the 
United States. 
Prices of Cattle in America. 
Hitherto the States of Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky have 
been the chief sources whence the dead meat sent to England 
has been drawn. The Chicago cattle-market, being the chief 
emporium of the Middle States, has set the prices for that section 
of the country, and it is there that the exporters purchase the 
bulk of their supplies. Chicago, situated as it is on the shores 
of Lake Michigan, and on the Pacific Railroad, is the natural 
outlet of the Middle and Western States — this is the explanation 
of its marvellous growth. Its trade is already stupendously 
large, not in cattle only, or in sheep and pigs, but to a prodi- 
gious extent in " corn " and grain, and in all agricultural pro- 
ductions. Every year this trade increases, and every year it 
must continue to increase for a long time to come. The deve- 
