204 Orowth and Development of the Trade in Frozen Mutton. 
competition of our neighbours on the Continent, whence we draw 
almost all our imports of live sheep ; but that there was one 
quarter in which a competitive development might conceivably 
be looked for — namely, the frozen mutton trade. 
When we saw on the one side the rapid shrinkage of all 
the European flocks, and measured on the other the distance 
of ocean transport which separates England and her mutton- 
eating population from the Antipodean regions where the relation 
of flocks to people is reversed, the prospect of a large live im- 
portation from such countries was seen not to be serious. But it 
was enough to recognise the fact that the mouths were here, and 
the sheep yonder, to feel sure that science was neai-ly certain 
to bridge the ocean barrier ; and, prices permitting, only time 
was needed to develop the new business which had already be- 
gun to pour into our docks a heavier stream of frozen carcasses 
than ever reached our ports alive. 
The possibility of a collapse of the frozen trade, from the 
low values of imported mutton in our markets in 1886-87, made 
it wise to await the progress of events before any rash attempt 
to gauge the staying capacity of the new competitors. But 
now, with the record of a nine years' completed experiment, 
for the last seven of which official data exist to measure the 
growth of the imports, I question if it would be permissible to 
look on the import trade in frozen mutton as other than an 
established one. Whatever may be its future ultimate expan- 
sion, it has passed through a crucial test. It cannot, therefore, 
be uninstructive to note its rise, and to measure its dimensions 
at the present time. 
The Table on page 205 shows our annual population, and our 
sheep stocks here, to which I add the yearly number slaughtered, 
according to the estimate of Sir Henry Thompson made in 1872 
in this Journal,' as slightly amended in the figures I ventured to 
offer in 1887. Alongside of these I place the live imports and 
the carcasses of sheep which the fresh-mutton arrivals from the 
three sources of the frozen trade — that is, from Australia, from 
New Zealand, and from the Argentine Eepublic — represent. 
Practically, it will be seen, the new trade now means the addi- 
tion of 2,000,000 head of sheep to our annual supplies, while two 
frozen sheep are now landed in England for every one that comes 
alive. 
In the Table here given I have simply followed the old 
estimate, that no more than two out of every five native sheep 
and lambs counted in June become mutton in each twelvemonth. 
' Vol. VIII. (Second Series^, pages 152 et seq. 
