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After 1892 cattle, which in that year numbered 11,519,417, and sheep declined continuously for three years to the totals of 1895, the diminution being mainly the result of the memorable drought of 1893. Sheep, which numbered 32,571,018 in 1878, declined continuously to 27,448,220 in 1882—a loss of over five million head in five years. This was chiefly attributable to the ravages of the liver fluke which began in the disastrously wet season of 1879. Pigs, being prolific breeders, fluctuate more widely in numbers than cattle or sheep, for the difference of 1,498,552 in their case represents one-third of the highest total, whereas the difference is less than one-seventh for horses, less than one-sixth for cattle, and less than one-fifth for sheep.

The 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.

XIII.—Numbers of Horses, Cattle, Sheep and Pigs in the United Kingdom in 1905.

Again, whilst Great Britain possessed only half as many cattle more than 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.  

The stock-breeders and graziers of the United Kingdom have, equally with the corn-growers, to face the brunt of foreign competition.

Up to 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.

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

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.