Management of Grass Land. 
155 
I will now endeavour to form an estimate of the amount of 
beef, mutton, and pork, which the animals recorded in Tables 
(A) and (B) may be expected to send annually to market. This 
calculation must, to a great extent, rest on estimate, and cannot 
approach in accuracy to an ascertained fact ; but I have before 
me so considerable a number of opinions, supplied by some 
of the most eminent cattle salesmen in the metropolitan and 
several of the leading provincial markets, also by local cattle 
dealers and butchers, together with returns from some of the 
railway companies, who convey large quantities of meat weekly 
from all parts of the United Kingdom to London, that the figures 
founded on a careful comparison of these data can scarcely be 
very far from the truth. Beginning with Table (A), I estimate 
the weight of the foreign cattle brought to market for slaughter — 
exclusive of calves, young bulls, &c. — at 620 lbs. per head. A 
considerable deduction must be made for the number of 
calves, which, in 1871, were 40,189 = 16'12 per cent, of the 
cattle of all ages imported in that year. Taking the calves 
at 80 lbs. each; 16 per cent, at 80 lbs., and 84 per cent, 
at 620 lbs., give an average of 530 lbs. per head for cattle 
of all ages. There are, however, a certain number of young 
bulls and inferior cattle imported for which allowance must be 
made, and I therefore take the average weight of foreign cattle 
of all ages at 520 lbs. per head. In estimating the weight of 
meat derived from this source, it is, no doubt, overrating it to 
assume that the foreign cattle yield 520 lbs. of meat each as 
imported, many being milch cows, or store cattle for grazing ; 
but, as there are no data for calculating their numbers or weights, 
I have preferred to assume that the whole are intended for imme- 
diate slaughter. The number imported in 1871 was the highest 
ever known, viz., 248,911. At 520 lbs. each, this would produce 
57,783 tons of beef. 
Foreign sheep and lambs I estimate at 50 lbs. per head : the 
916,799 imported in 1871 would, therefore, produce 20,464 tons 
of mutton. 
Foreign swine I estimate at 100 lbs. per head, and at this rate 
the 85,622 swine imported in 1871 would yield 3331 tons of 
pork ; so that the cattle, sheep, and swine, of all ages imported 
in 1871 would yield 81,578 tons of meat. 
. The next step will be to estimate the average supply of meat 
derived from the cattle, sheep, and swine shown in Table (B). 
For this purpose the United Kingdom may be treated as one 
gigantic farm, breeding, rearing, and fattening its own live 
stock ; and the proportion of cattle, sheep, and swine sent to 
market may be approximately estimated by ascertaining how 
many head of each sort a farm maintaining a herd of 100 cows, 
