Advance of 
prices in the 
Metropolitan 
market. 
476 = 2i0 
Practical Agriculture. 
Thompson in 1864, and completed by Mr. James Howar 
in 1876:— 
Wholesale Peice of Prime Meat per Stoke of 8 lbs. ia the Metropolita 
Market in the Undermektioned Periods. 
Kind of 
Meat by the 
Carcass, 
Beef. . 
Mutton 
Average 
Price for 
5 Years 
ending 
1853. 
4 2 
4 5 
Average 
Price for 
5 Years 
ending 
1863. 
d. 
5 OJ 
5 9 
Increase in 
10 Years. 
Price. I Per 
d. cent. 
10 20 
Average 
Price for 
5 Y'ears 
ending 
1873. 
S. d. 
5 6i 
Increase in 
20 Years. 
Price. 
d. 
16 
Per 
cent. 
32 
43 
Average 
Price 
for 1S74 
and 1875. 
s. d. 
5 8i 
Increase ii 
22 Years. 
Price, 
d.. 
18 
Mr. James 
Howard on 
advance in 
price 
In a Paper read before the London Farmers' Club last yea 
Mr Howard observed upon this statement, that between 185 
and 1863, an advance of 20 per cent, took place, in the Metre 
politan Market, in the price of prime beef in the carcass, and 
much as 30 per cent, in mutton. In the following ten year 
viz., to 1873, the total advance was 32 per cent, in beef, an 
42 per cent, in mutton. The prices in 1875 were, again, hight 
than in 1873 ; beef having advanced ^d. and mutton f rf. per 11 
and he adduced the following in corroboration : — " From tb 
Howard on the examination of the books of a large country butcher, placed ; 
my disposal, I find that during the past twenty-five years tb 
retail price of meat has increased 4rf. to bd. per lb., and, siij 
gularly enough, it has risen by gradual steps. At the end 
each five years the advance has been just about \d. per lb. C 
course, during this long period there have been occasional checl- 
to this upward tendency, but these have invariably been of she 
duration. I may say that, from inquiries I have made, tl' 
advances in London butchers' prices correspond closely to thoi 
I have named." 
Estimating the In evidence before the Select Committee of the House i ' 
home produc- Commons on Contagious Diseases of Animals, in 1873, I gaA' 
t ion of meat. estimate of the Annual Home Production of Meat; and, b 
inquiries subsequently made respecting the ages at whic 
animals are killed, and their average dead-weights, I have bet 
enabled to confirm, while to some extent correcting, that estima 
of what the United Kingdom annually raises in beef, mutto 
veal, lamb, and pork. 
Taking the Board of Trade Census of cattle and sheep as 
basis for calculation (though it probably falls below the actu 
numbers, owing to the large proportion of stockowners wl 
decline to fill up returns, and whose herds and flocks li;r 
therefore to be guessed at by the enumerators), we have tl 
number of breeding cows and heifers described as "in milk i 
