60 
average weight of hide from which the calculations, or estimates, 
are made is (where mentioned) about 65 lb. 
The exact proportion of warbled bides is difficult to ascertain, 
excepting at markets where bides so injured are classed by them¬ 
selves, but these are given in some cases, and by calculation or 
estimate the loss at various of the above markets on warbled hides 
runs in the year reported (or during the four or five months specially 
known as the Warble months) to sums of respectively £1400; 
£1500 to £2000; £1800; £2800; and at one of the chief hide 
centres, where there is careful attention paid to inspection, the loss 
in the year reported was £15,000. In the return from one town 
where the amount of cattle slaughtered per week is 700, the 
proportion of warbled hides during summer and autumn is fully 
one-third, and the average loss on these is calculated at not less 
than 5s. per hide. 
In 1885 I was favoured by Messrs. Fry & Co., of Birmingham, 
with tables giving particulars of the numbers of sound and warbled 
hides sold at one of the Birmingham markets, and the price each 
parcel sold at from the beginning of the Warble season, viz., 
February 14tli, to the end, September 19th, in 1885. But* as 
these tables are too long and elaborate for convenient insertion 
here, I give the following tabulated abstract, on opposite page. 
By casting the eye along the columns it will be seen that the 
first three heavy classes, namely, those of 95 lbs. and upwards, 85 
to 94 lbs., and 75 to 84 lbs., which are all, or nearly all, ox-hides, 
do not suffer as much as the three following. These last—that is, 
the classes weighing 65 to 74 lbs., 56 to 64 lbs., and 55 lbs. and 
under—are principally heifer-hides, and are the greatest sufferers. 
Bull’s hides are stated, as a rule, to be also very much warbled, 
but as these are not what is termed ‘ thrown out,’ but sold (sound 
and warbled) together, the proportion of warbled hide could not 
be given. 
The amount sold during the thirty-two weeks of sound and of 
warbled hides may thus be conveniently compared, together with 
the highest and lowest prices per pound of each. The sound hides 
include both the ordinary and extra-flayed. 
* For these tables printed in extenso, as I received them, but which require 
far too much space to be inserted here at length, the reader is referred to my 
Annual Report for 1885, and also to the Appendix to Eighteenth Report, facing 
p. xxxvi. 
