for Consumption in the Metropolis. 
All 
attributed to the extensive crossing now carried on in Holland 
with most of our heavy breeds, such as Kents, Leicesters, and 
Cotswolds, including Gloucesters and Gloucester Downs — the 
purchases of which, on Dutch account, for breeding purposes, still 
continue numerous and important. Had the German flock- 
masters purchased English rams, and had they shown equal spirit 
with the Dutch farmers, we should be receiving a much larger 
supply of mutton from Germany than we now are, and that, too, 
of superior quality. In reference to lambs and calves, scarcely 
any ciiange has taken place in their respective weights ; but, as 
regards pigs, the increase has been as remarkable as in the sheep. 
Early maturity has produced a quantitv of pork without parallel. 
For some time subsequently to the Irish famine, pork was selling 
at unusually high quotations, owing to the great deficiency in the 
arrivals from Ireland ; but pigs, it is well known, increase with 
great rapidity, and, during the past six months, the numbers 
killed and consumed in this country have been unusually large 
— larger, perhaps, than at any former period. The excess in the 
supplies has, naturally, had some influence upon the value of 
other kinds of meat, especially beef and mutton ; indeed, had 
it not been for the enormous quantities of pork offered and dis- 
posed of in the dead markets, we should have had other descrip- 
tions of meat considerably higher in price. In the past season, 
however — from the low value at which pork has been disposed 
of — immense numbers of pigs have sold for what they would 
fetch, and the consequence is, that a great inroad has been made 
upon the total supply in the country. Though still large, it is 
considerably less than it was six months since, and our impres- 
sion is, that pork will be dearer during the remainder of the 
winter months than it was last season. If our conclusions be 
correct, both beasts and sheep are likely to be even more profit^ 
able to the graziers and breeders than at present ; indeed, every- 
thing seems to point to what may be termed high quotations. 
The actual increase in the weight of pigs — carrying back our 
comparison twenty years — cannot be less than 12 lbs. for each 
carcase. In that increase must be considered the fat, which, in 
not a few instances, has represented the total increase in the 
carcase. 
Consumption of Meat in London. 
Many opinions have, from time to time, been hazarded in 
reference to the actual quantity of meat consumed in the metro- 
polis in each year ; but this important question has evidently 
been handled by those who have had no practical acquaintance 
with it. Some persons have assumed that the whole of the 
beasts, sheep, lambs, calves, and pigs, disposed of in the Metro- 
