206 Oroivfli and Development of the Trade ht Frozen Mutton. 
Largely, therefore, as the new imports have increased, they 
are not yet enough to supply each unit of our population with a 
single ounce of mutton per week ; while the produce of our 
own pastures, at the lowest of the two estimates, is still sufficient 
to provide each one of us with nearly an ounce per day. 
It is not uninstructive to refer here to the different course 
of the trade in fresh foreign beef and frozen foreign mutton. 
Twelve years ago this Journal ' reported the remarkable begin- 
ning made by the fresh beef trade from the United States. 
In a single twelvemonth the export from the ports of New York 
and Philadelphia alone, reckoned at 36,000 lbs. in the month 
of November 1875, rose to 4,194,000 lbs. in the month of 
November 1876, and by April of the next year the monthly 
total exceeded 8,500,000 lbs. 
Calculated on our population here, the foreign beef received, 
which was only 4;^ lbs. per head in 1874, became 10^ lbs. by 
1880, the live cattle exports from America developing mar- 
vellously in the same interval. But after this sudden rise the 
trade was checked. Since 1880 we have had no more of such 
increases as this in the beef import trade. Except in the years 
1883-84, when a rally was made, the average beef imports fell 
away from the high level then reached, and, measured on the 
population, cannot, since that date, be said to have constituted a 
growing competition in our markets with the produce of our own 
herds. 
Now the course of business as regards mutton imports has 
been entirely different. It is true that mutton was considerably 
later than beef in finding its way in any notable quantities to 
our shores. Both in 1869 and in 1874 the foreigner sent us 
no more than l^lb. apiece. Even six years later, when Ameri- 
can cattle and refrigerated beef were largely coming to hand, 
the mutton imports, so far as recorded at any rate, were still 
wholly made up of live sheep, and did not reach If lb. per 
person. With 1880 the new trade, as I have already shown, 
began. Two years later the Board of Trade Returns recognised 
it, and enabled us to trace its dimensions and its growth. Un- 
like the business in beef, the new trade has known as yet no 
check in its progress, if there has been some variety in the 
sources of supply. Nine years ago it was computed that the 
foreign importation was less than 7 per cent, of the mutton 
eaten here : it now forms 17^ per cent., or 14^ per cent., of the 
annual consumption, according as we adopt the higher or the 
lower estimate of our native yearly production. 
' See Professor Sheldon's article on American Meat Trade, Table III., 
Vol. XIII. (New Series), page 332. 
