Report on the American and Canadian Meat Trade. 355 
they depend alone on the in-cargoes for payment. Now it will 
not pay our shipping companies to run more ships than are 
absolutely necessary, while depending only on a one-way 
freight; hence it follows that the freight on meat must inevit- 
ably advance, unless the export-trade from England to America 
greatly revives, and of this there is but a remote hope. 
With Canada the case is different. The tariff on English 
goods arriving in Canada is much smaller that that imposed by 
the United States, and consequently the shipping companies to 
Quebec and Montreal can obtain paying outfreights to Canada, 
besides which they are now bringing over large quantities of 
Canadian cattle, and are making preparations to bring increased 
numbers, at a freight of 11. per head. Upwards of 300 cattle 
have already been brought over in one ship, and after a time, as 
many as 400 or 500 will be brought. In this trade the com- 
panies have good profits, whilst the exporters are satisfied with 
the profits on the cattle sent. These cattle are in summer-time 
more valuable alive than dead, as they can be held over until they 
are wanted for slaughter ; but in winter-time, so far as I can see, 
the dead-meat trade will supersede that in fat cattle, whether 
cold-stores are or are not ultimately built in this country. 
It is probable that the American and Canadian meat-trade 
will stimulate the production of meat in this country if it should 
lead to the prohibition of the import of live cattle from those 
foreign countries which are the homes of the contagious diseases 
that have for so many years seriously interfered with this branch 
of English farming. When the Corn Laws were abolished, 
English farmers had still another string to their bow — the pro- 
duction of meat ; and as corn-growing became less remunerative, 
our farmers turned their attention more to breeding and feeding 
sheep and cattle. By this change of front they were enabled to 
hold their own, though with increasing difficulty, owing to the 
importation of cattle-plague, pleuro-pneumonia, and foot-and- 
mouth disease. But now they are again in danger of being in 
extremis, and this time the remaining string to their bow is to 
obtain adequate security against the importation of these foreign 
diseases, coupled with greater freedom in the cultivation of the 
land and in the disposal of its produce. 
My best thanks are due to those gentlemen in the United 
States and Canada who have supplied me with the valuable 
information contained in this Report, and also to several gentle- 
men on this side, notably Mr. Alderman Hubback and Mr. 
Dyke, of Liverpool, and Mr. Tallerman, of London. 
