116 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
removal of onerous restrictions, knows nothing of difficul¬ 
ties which constantly present themselves for solution. Every 
vague charge or baseless report passes unchallenged, and 
agriculturists are being educated to believe that foreign ani¬ 
mals are of no particular use to us, even when they are 
healthy, constituting an insignificant item of four and a half 
per cent, of our consumption, that the Privy Council 
frames all its regulations with the view to the introduc¬ 
tion of foreign diseases ; and that every facility is offered 
to the importers of foreign stock to the detriment of 
the home producer. This nonsense has been uttered so 
often, and has so long remained uncontradicted, that it 
is scarcely to be wondered at if many people have a 
sort of vague impression that they are unjustly treated. 
Why do not some enterprising importers establish a Foreign 
Cattle Defence Association whose office should be to protect 
foreign animals from the evil aspersions which are per¬ 
petually cast upon them; such an institution would do good 
service if it only disabused the popular mind of the idea 
that all foreign animals are t{ prolific sources of infectious 
diseases.” 
At any rate we should have both sides of the question 
represented, instead of as now being wearied by the constant 
repetition of the old story with always the same worn-out 
illustrations. We should, perhaps, among other things, 
learn something of the care which has been taken, and is 
now being taken, to improve the breeds of animals abroad, 
with a view to the requirements of the English market; 
of the systems of grazing and fattening on which we depend 
for a considerable portion of our meat supplies; and we 
might finally come to believe that good beef and mutton are 
not exclusively English institutions. 
