Groirtli and Development of the 'I'vadc in Frozen Mutton. 205 
Population, Native Sheep, and Imported Sheep. 
xcos 
Population at 
the middle of 
eaoti year 
Number of 
slieep and 
lambs enumer- 
ated annually 
in June 
Number as- 
sumed to be 
slaughtered 
annually, i.e. 40 
percent, of those 
*i 1111 fi vn t *i f1 
Number of 
sheep importeil 
alive annually 
Number of 
carcasses of 
frozen sheep 
imported 
945,000 
1880 
34,469,000 
30,240,000 
12,096,000 
941,000 
400 
1881 
34,930,000 
27,896,000 
11,158,400 
935.000 
17,275 
1882 
35,290,000 
27,448,000 
10,979,200 
I, 124,000 
66,095 
' 1883 
35,612,000 
28,348,000 
11,339,200 
1,1 16,000 
201,791 
1884 
35,962,000 
29.377.000 
11,750,800 
943,000 
632,917 
1885 
36,325,000 
30,086,000 
12,027,200 
751,000 
777,891 
1886 
36,707,000 
28,955,000 
11,682,000 
1,039,000 
1,187,547 
1887 
37,092,000 
29,402,000 
11,760,800 
971,000 
1,542,646 
1888 
37,454,000 
28,939,000 
11,575,600 
956,000 
1,975,208 
If our mutton crop is really greater now, as I fancy might be 
shown, the total consumption is by so much increased beyond 
the estimated number of carcasses here shown as constituting 
the yearly food supply. But the whole question of the quota 
supplied by our uative flocks — and, for the matter of that, the 
yield in beef of our native herds also — might well form here- 
after a separate subject of inquiry. It is as important now as 
the Council thought it in 1886 that we should learn, somewhat 
more exactly than we have ever yet done, what is the meat 
production of the United Kingdom. But, as it was seen then, 
such a question must be treated exhaustively, if at all. I shall 
not, therefore, attempt to complicate a subject, diflBcult enough 
in itself, by showing in any detail how, if five home sheep out of 
every ten, in place of only four, go annually to the butcher 
in these days of early maturity, we might reduce the relative 
proportion of the foreign supply. Its absolute bulk and the 
lesson of its steady growth — the two points on which I wish to 
fix immediate attention — remain the same, whatever may be the 
precise share of the British flockmaster in making provision for 
the national dinner-table. 
Suffice it here to note that, on the basis of the older theory 
of home production, the whole foreign quota is now between 
17^ and 18 per cent, of the mutton consumed in England. On 
the second hypothesis, the whole consumption being greater, and 
the domestic out-turn larger, the 4' 6 lbs. of foreign mutton per 
head of our population which we receive alive or dead would 
represent little more than 14^ per cent. Of these 4-6 lbs., the 
frozen trade now provides nearly 3 lbs. for each man, woman, 
and child in the United Kingdom, while the mutton represented 
by the live sheep importation does not much exceed H lb. 
