Growth and Development of the Trade in Frozen Mutton. 203 
IX. — The Growth and Development of the Trade in Frozen 
Mutton. By Major P. G. Craigie. 
Matchless as the flocks of the British farmer have been proved 
in many a show-yard, it is with no little anxiety that the 
student of our annual returns perceives that the numbers of 
our sheep are again diminishing. There may never have 
been a time when these islands boasted a flock of 50,000,000 
head, although such was the impression of our fleecy wealth 
formed by more than one Continental writer early in the cen- 
'tury. But it needs no reference to ancient history, and no 
reliance on the guesses of an unstatistical age, to discover the 
serious diminution of our sheep stock. "We know with some 
certainty that twenty years ago our flocks numbered 35,600,000, 
and that fourteen years ago they were still 34,800,000 strong ; 
whereas in June 1888 there were counted only 28,900,000 sheep 
in the whole United Kingdom. 
Only thrice before, and then at a date when the decline was 
accounted for by the memorable losses due to liver-fluke, have 
we recorded so small a flock. Nor is the absolute loss the only 
serious feature of the matter : its relative significance is greater 
still. If we have nearly 7,000,000 fewer sheep in 1888 than 
we had in 1868, we have 7,000,000 more consumers. 
It is inevitable, therefore, that some explanation should be 
demanded of this phenomenon — common though I believe it to 
be among the older nations of our time. Several things may 
have happened. We may conceivably have become as a nation so 
much poorer that we consume less meat than we did. We may 
perhaps have changed our tastes, and, while using as much 
meat in the aggregate, have become smaller mutton-eaters than 
before. But, on the contrary, it may also well be asked, Does 
not the skill of our breeders furnish as much mutton as ever 
from a flock numerically reduced, but of much earlier maturity 
than of yore ? Something is to be said for all of these explana- 
tions, and most of all for the last. It is, however, with another 
possibility that I propose to deal in this paper. It has been asked, 
even if we are eating rather less, and producing rather more from a 
smaller stock, must not the conclusion be that, with mutton as 
with wheat, the Englishman is turning to the foreigner or the 
colonist for the provision of that which our yearly extending 
pastures might have been expected to supply ? 
Only eighteen months ago I pointed out in this Journal ' 
that the British flockmaster had indeed little to fear from the 
' Vol. XXIII. (Second Series), pages 465 et srq. 
