difference is less than one-seventh for horses. less than
one-sixth for cattle, and less than one-fifth for sheep. The
TABLE XII.--Numbers of Horses, Cattle, Sheep and Pigs in the
United Kingdom.
Year. Horses. Cattle. Sheep. Pigs.
1875 1,819,687 10,162,787 33,491,948 3,495,167
1880 1,929,680 9,871,533 30,239,620 2,865,488
1885 1,909,200 10,868,760 30,086,200 3,686,628
1890 1,964,911 10,789,858 31,667,195 4,362,040
1895 2,112,207 10,753,314 29,774,853 4,238,870
1900 2,000,402 11,454,902 31,054,547 3,663,669
1905 2,116,800 11,674,019 29,076,777 3,601,659
relative proportions--as distinguished from the actual numbers
--in which stock are distributed over the several sections
of the United Kingdom do not vary greatly from year to
year. Table XIII., in which the totals for the United
Kingdom include those for the Channel Islands and Isle of
Man, illustrates the preponderance of the sheep-breeding
industry in the drier climate of Great Britain, and of the
cattle-breeding industry in the more humid atmosphere of
Ireland. In Great Britain in 1905, for every head of
cattle there were about four head of sheep, whereas in
Ireland the cattle outnumbered the sheep. Again. whilst
Great Britain possessed only half as many cattle more than
TABLE XIII.--Numbers of Horses, Cattle, Sheep and Pigs in the
United Kingdom in 1905.
1905. Horses. Cattle. Sheep. Pigs.
England 1,204,124 5,020,936 14,698,018 2,083,226
Wales 161,923 738,789 3,534,967 211,479
Scotland 206,386 1,227,295 7,024,211 130,214
Great Britain 1,572,433 6,987,020 25,257,196 2,424,919
Ireland 534,875 4,645,215 3,749,352 1,164,316
United
Kingdom8 2,116,800 11,674,019 29,076,777 3,601,659
Ireland, she possessed six times as many sheep. The cattle
population of England alone slightly exceeded that of
Ireland. but cattle are more at home on the broad plains of
England than amongst the hills and mountains of Wales and
Scotland. which are suitable for sheep. Hence, whilst in
England sheep were not three times as numerous as cattle,
in Wales they were nearly five times, and in Scotland nearly
six times as many. Great Britain had twice as many pigs as
Ireland, but the swine industry is mainly English and Irish,
and England possessed more than six times as many pigs as
Wales and Scotland together. the number in the last-named
country being particularly small. One English county alone,
Suffolk, maintained more pigs than the whole of Scotland.
British Imports of Live Animals and Meat.
The stock-breeders and graziers of the United Kinudom have, equally
with the corn-growers, to face the brunt of foreign competition.
Up tp 1896 store cattle were admitted into the United
Kingdom for the purpose of being fattened, but under the
Diseases of Animals Act of that year animals imported
since then have to be slaughtered at the place of landing.
The dimensions of this trade are shown in Table XIV.
TABLE XIV.--Numbers of Cattle, Sheep and Pigs Imported into the
United Kingdom, 1891-1905.
Year. Cattle. Sheep. Pigs.
1891 507,407 344,504 542
1892 502,237 79,048 3826
1993 340,045 62,682 138
1894 475,440 484,597 8
1895 415,565 1,065,470 321
1896 562,553 769,592 4
1897 618,321 611,504 ..
1898 569,066 663,747 450
1899 503,504 607,755 ..
1900 495,645 382,833 ..
1901 495,635 383,594 ..
1902 419,488 293,203 ..
1903 522,546 354,241 ..
1904 549,532 382,240 ..
1905 565,139 183,084 150
The animals come mainly from the United States of America, Canada
and Argentina, and the traffic in cattle is more uniform than that
in sheep, whilst that in pigs seems practically to have reached
extinction. The quantities of dead meat imported increased
with great rapidity from 1891 to 1905, a circumstance largely
due to the rise of the trade in chilled and frozen meat. Fresh
beef in this form is imported chiefly from the United States
and Australasia, fresh mutton from Australasia and Argentina.
Table XV. shows how rapidly this trade expanded during the decade
of the 'nineties. The column headed bacon and hams indicates
clearly enough that the imports of fresh meat did not displace
those of preserved pig meat, for the latter expanded from
4,715,000 cwt. to 7,784,000 cwt. during the decade. The column
for all dead meat includes not only the items tabulated, but also
TABLE XV.--Quantities of Dead Meat Imported into the United
Kingdom, 1891-1905--Thousands of Cwt.
Year. Fresh Fresh Fresh Bacon All
Beef. Mutton. Pork. and Hams. Dead Meat.
1891 1921 1663 128 4715 9,790
1892 2080 1700 132 5135 10,300
1893 1808 1971 182 4187 9,305
1894 2104 2295 180 4819 10,610
1895 2191 2611 288 5353 11,977
1896 2660 2895 299 6009 13,347
1897 3010 3193 348 6731 14,729
1898 3101 3314 558 7684 16,445
1899 3803 3446 669 7784 17,658
1900 4128 3393 695 7444 17,912
1901 4509 3608 792 7633 18,764
1902 3707 3660 655 6572 16,971
1903 4160 4017 706 6298 17,498
1904 4350 3495 610 6696 17,517
1905 5038 3811 506 6817 18,680
the following, the quantities stated being those for 1905:--Beef,
salted, 142,806 cwt.; beef, otherwise preserved, 598,030 cwt.;
preserved mutton, 30,111 cwt.; salted pork, 205,965 cwt.;
dead rabbits, 656,078 cwt.; meat, unenumerated, 875,032 cwt.
The quantities of these are relatively small, and, excepting
rabbits from Australia, they show no general tendency to
increase. The extent to which these growing imports were
associated with a decline in value is shown in Table XVI.
The trend of the import trade in meat, live and dead (exclusive
of rabbits), may be gathered from Table XVII., in which are
given the annual average imports from the eight quinquennial
periods embraced between 1866 and 1905. An increase in live
cattle accompanied a decrease in live sheep and pigs, but the
imports of dead meat expanded fifteen-fold over the period,
The rate at which the trade in imported frozen mutton
increased as compared with the industry in home-grown mutton
is illustrated in the figures published annually by Messrs
W. Weddel and Company, from which those for 1885 and 1890 and
for each year from 1895 to 1906 are given in Table XVIII. The
home-grown is the estimated dead weight of sheep and lambs
slaughtered, which is taken at 40% of the total number of sheep
and lambs returned each year in the United Kingdom. In the
TABLE XVI.--Average Values of Fresh Meat, Bacon and Hams
Imported into the United Kingdom, 1891-1905--per Cwt.
Year. Fresh Fresh Fresh Bacon. Hams.
Beef. Mutton. Pork.
s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d.
1891 42 1 39 6 47 6 37 11 46 4
1892 42 5 40 6 46 11 40 10 47 4
1893 42 4 39 3 50 0 53 0 58 5
1894 40 0 37 10 48 5 43 10 49 1
1895 39 0 35 2 46 1 39 0 44 11
1896 37 10 32 7 45 11 34 6 43 0
1897 38 5 30 3 44 0 35 5 42 8
1898 38 2 29 7 41 10 36 2 39 6
1899 38 8 31 7 41 11 35 10 41 5
1900 39 7 34 5 43 0 41 9 46 10
1901 39 6 36 7 43 4 47 1 48 8
1902 42 8 37 9 44 2 52 9 52 1
1903 40 3 39 0 44 1 52 10 55 1
1904 37 1 39 3 45 2 47 1 49 11
1905 35 6 38 6 46 0 46 6 47 4
imported column is given the weight of fresh (frozen) mutton
and lamb imported, plus the estimated dead weight of the
sheep imported on the hoof for slaughter. The quantity imported
in 1899 was double that in 1890, and quadruple that in 1885.
Moreover, in 1885 the imported product was only about one-seventh
TABLE XVII.--Average Annual Imports of Cattle, Sheep and Pigs,
and of Dead Meat, into the United Kingdom over eight 5-yearly
periods.
Period. Cattle. Sheep. Pigs. Dead Meat.
No. No. No. Cwt.
1866-1870 194,947 610,300 64,827 1,155,867
1871-1875 215,990 864,516 74,040 3,134,175
1876-1880 272,745 938,704 44,613 5,841,913
1881-1885 387,282 974,316 24,355 6,012,495
1886-1890 438,098 800,599 19,437 7,681,729
1891-1895 448,139 407,260 967 10,436,549
1896-1900 549,818 607,086 91 15,785,354
1901-1905 510,468 319,272 30 17,384,366
as much as the home-grown. whereas in 1890 it was more than
one-fourth, and in 1906 close on two-thirds. This large import
trade in fresh meat, which sprang up entirely within the last
quarter of the 19th century, has placed an abundance of cheap
and wholesome food well within the reach of the great industrial
TABLE XVIII.--Home Product and Imports of Sheep and Mutton
into the United Kingdom--Thousands of Tons.
Year. Home- Imported. Year. Home- Imported.
grown. grown.
1885 322 47 1900 332 179
1890 339 92 1901 330 191
1895 319 157 1902 322 191
1896 329 164 1903 318 2109
1897 327 175 1904 311 185
1898 333 182 1905 312 195
1899 339 187 1906 313 207
populations of the United Kingdom. At the same time it
cannot. be gainsaid that it has opened the way to fraud.
Butchers have palmed off upon their customers imported
fresh meat as home-grown, and secured a dishonest profit
by charging for it the prices of the latter, which are
considerably in excess of those of the imported product.
Sale of Cattle by Live Weight
In connexion with the internal live stock trade of Great
Britain attention must be directed to the Markets and Fairs
(Weighing of Cattle) Act 1891. The object of this measure
is to replace the old-fashioned system of guessing at the
weight of an animal by the sounder method of obtaining the
exact weight by means of the weighbridge. The grazier buys
and sells cattle much less frequently than the butcher buys
them, so that the latter is naturally more skilled in estimating
the weight of a beast through the use of the eye and the
hand. The resort to the weighbridge should put both on an
equality, and its use tends to increase. Under the act,
as supplemented by an order of the Board of Agriculture
in 1905, there were in that year 26 scheduled places in
England and 10 in Scotland, or 36 altogether, from which
returns were obtained. The numbers of cattle (both fat
and store) weighed at scheduled places in 1893 and 190510
were respectively 7.59 and 18% of those entering those
markets. The numbers for Scotland are greater throughout
than those for England, 72% of the fat cattle entering the
