Statistics of Live Stock and Dead Meat. 
473 
turist feels pleasure in making it known. If, therefore, there shall 
be found in the few foregoing pages anything at all beneficial to 
our farming fraternity, no one will derive greater satisfaction 
than the writer. 
Cambridge, December, 1859. 
XXVI. — Statistics of Live Stock and Dead Meat for Consumption 
in the Metropolis. By Robert Hekbert. 
The last January Number of the ' Journal of the Royal Agri- 
cultural Society of England ' contained some statements of an 
important character, in reference to the various changes in the 
different breeds of beasts and sheep produced for consumption in 
the metropolis : in other words, we showed that, while some 
breeds of the former have become nearly extinct as regards the 
supply for the London market, a wonderful increase has taken 
place in others, and that our enormous consumption has been 
steadily met by our breeders and feeders, without leading to very 
high prices or, considering the amount of animal food actually 
consumed, any serious — certainly not any very important — drain 
upon the aggregate resources of the Continent. This drain, 
as far as Holland is concerned (from which country we have 
been accustomed to draw fully three-fourths of our foreign 
supplies since the passing of the present tariff on imports), 
seems to have reached its utmost limit. We do not say that 
there is a scarcity of stock on the Continent generally ; but it is 
quite clear that the present stringent regulations at the Custom- 
house will have the effect of checking shipments of stock to this 
country, except in a wholesome and consumable state ; neverthe- 
less Me are still receiving full average numbers of stock from 
abroad, and the deficiency in the receipts from Holland has been 
made good by extensive arrivals of sheep from Germany — prin- 
cipally Mecklenburg-Schwerin via Hamburg. We may observe, 
however, that the total iveight of meat now imported into Eng- 
land is considerably smaller than in many previous years. True, 
the Dutch graziers, from extensive crossing with some of our 
best breeds, have at length succeeded in producing a more useful 
breed of sheep ; and they have apparently commenced a system 
which will prove highly advantageous to them in a pecuniary 
point of view. Not that the sheep can yet stand the test of com- 
petition with half-breds raised even on our poorest soils ; but, 
in a comparative sense, they now begin to exhibit points of much 
value ; and this remark will be more fully understood when we 
state that some of the best Dutch sheep have lately been disposed 
