210 
CATTLE TRADE AND MEAT SUPPLY. 
cattle-market is chiefly supplied from Ireland ; the number 
of cattle and calves imported there by sea, in 1852, amounted 
to 176,000. In addition to these, large quantities are brought 
by railway from Scotland, and a few are driven in also from the 
immediate neighbourhood. At Newcastle, the cattle 
brought to market the last few years have averaged about 
39.000 head; at Manchester, about 91,000; at Glasgow, 
32.000 ; and at Wolverhampton, 25,000 head in the year. We 
are speaking only of oxen and calves. In Newgate and 
Leadenhall markets the supplies of meat now reach about 
70.000 tons per annum, whilst throughout the kingdom the 
aggregate weight of butchers’ meat consumed cannot be less 
than 750,000 tons a year. 
Mr. Ormanby, an official on the London and North 
Western Railway, computed, in 1853, the cattle-traffic pass- 
ing over all the lines of railway of the United Kingdom at 
1,253,353 oxen, and 981,925 calves, the aggregate value, of 
this stock being over £14,000,000: this is omitting pigs, 
sheep, dead meat, &c. In many things connected with food 
our knowledge is but conjectural, from the want of precise 
data, or any means of procuring accurate statistics ; but 
whenever correct returns can be obtained, it is exceedingly 
desirable to place them on record, for further comparison 
and reference. 
Our neighbour France has been increasing her imports of 
cattle and sheep, for while the number of oxen and cows re- 
ceived in 1854 was 90,946, in 1855 they numbered 113,469 
head; so with sheep the increase was from 272,610 to 
308,961. There was, at the same time, a large increase in 
the imports of meat, fresh and salted. The quantity im- 
ported in 1854 amounted to 59,805 metrical quintals: in 
1855 it had increased to 105,028 quintals. 
Although double the number of cattle are slaughtered 
yearly in France than are killed in the United Kingdom, yet, 
comparing the weight of meat, the proportion is largely in 
favour of British cattle. M. de Lavergne, in his recent work 
on our rural economy, estimates the average weight of British 
cattle at 625lbs., and those of France at only 250lbs. At 
5d. per lb. the value of the beef produced in France an- 
nually would be but £ 16,000,000, while that consumed in 
the United Kingdom would be worth more than £20,000,000. 
One hundred and fifty years ago the average weight of a 
beast at Smithfield market was not above 370lbs., now it 
exceeds 800 lbs. 
The gradual increase in the price of meat in France has 
been very great. From 1700 to 1763 the price of meat for 
