CATTLE TllADE AND MEAT SUPPLY. 
21.1 
2lbs. was 5 sous; from 1763 to 1812, 9 sous; from 1826 to 
1846, 1 1 sous ; 1846 to 1853, 18 sous; and since that period 
there has been a further increase of nearly 50 per cent. 
The government has, therefore, been directing its efforts, by 
regulating prices and revising the tariff, to keep down prices. 
Compared with the British prices of meat, those in France 
are, however, low ; but then the quality of the meat is most 
inferior. The duty on salt meats was also reduced, and 
larger importations have been made into France. There are 
about 6C0 butchers in Paris, and they are under great re- 
strictions. A code of government regulations fixes distinct 
prices periodically for the various parts and joints of the 
same carcase. 
The average quantity of animal food of all kinds con- 
sumed in France is stated, on good authority, that of M. 
Payen, to be as low as one-sixth of a pound per diem to 
each person. Even in the cities and large towns, especially 
Paris, the amount of food upon which a Frenchman lives is 
astonishingly small. An Englishman or an American would 
starve upon such fare. In France, in 1840, 3,699 ? 200 cattle 
and calves were slaughtered. The population of Paris may 
be taken at 1,250,000. 
If we cross the Atlantic, we find the city of New r York, 
with its population of 600,000 souls, consumes on an average 
half a pound of meat a day to each person, or nearly 49,000 
tons of flesh annually. Some returns given in the New 
York papers state the annual average consumption at 184,826 
oxen, 12,014 cows, 543,445 sheep and lambs, 41,844 calves, 
and 281,051 swine. The number slaughtered, in 1853, w 7 as 
19B766 oxen and cows, and 32,738 calves; the beef cattle 
averaged net about 575lbs., and the meat fetched 8 cents a 
pound. In proportion to its population, New York annually 
consumes as nearly as possible the same quantity of meat as 
London ; more beef, however, is used, and less mutton, and 
the latter fact may be accounted for by the comparative infe- 
riority of quality. Some of the cattle grazed on the prairies 
of the Western States are splendid animals. The average 
weight of each animal of the fine cattle herds usually brought 
to New York market from the Far West is stated to be 
1,400 or l,500lbs. ; but some reach nearly double that weight. 
A Mr. B. F. Harris, of Champagne, Illinois, recently sent to 
Albany by the Central railroad 34 head of stock, averaging 
2,400lbs. In the year 1849, this gentleman stall-fed nearly 
1000 head of cattle, taken in from the rich prairies of that 
Tate, and in 1853, he fed and sold a hundred head of cattle 
which averaged l,9661bs. ; this lot having carried off the 
