ENGLAND'S MEAT SUPPLY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 875, 22 July 1910, Page 8

ENGLAND'S MEAT SUPPLY.

: AN ACUTE QUESTION. Ho following appeared in the "Farmer and .Stockbreeder" (Loudon) on June 6, as a leading article: — "Considerable attention is at thepre- ; sent moment beiug devoted to the question of the future of our meat supply.' Mr. Lindsey, as president of the iSational Federation of Meat Traders' As- , sociations, is in many ways justified iu (jointing out. some of the difficulties under which the butcher labours. Indoed, this question of food supply is Jjocomiufc a very acute one, so largely has tho number of meat-consuming public increased of late- years, and so well organised aro tho foreign providers who find a market for their produce in these islands. It is to bo feared that tho remedy proposed, namely, the opening of our ports, would be far : more disastrous in the long run to the whole industry of cattle-breeding than it would be temporarily beneficial. Even in the Argentine the class of bullock . which is suitable for the export trade is bringing such high prices, that it is rnoro profitable to dispose of them there ,than to send them here; therefore the : ; opening of the ports is not the remedy for the scaroicj Indeed, ic would be very undesirable to attempt to regulato the farmer's profits in this way. No other industry would be subjected to like interference, and the law of supply and demand must be allowed as free a course in the question of tho -meat supplies of. the country as in 'other directions. No doubt extremists rwould like to see Canadian cattle reintroduced, believing that Canada is ■ free from' contagious . diseases. But that agitation has • long since been ■slain, although no doubt on the present occasion the moment will be considered opportune to revive it. The T>utcher must bring stronger guns . to hear upon the question if he is to prove convincing in his arguments in favour . ! of open ports. }. "The present prices for beef are not |S0 high as they were six years ago, and .'they are. not comparable with -those , (which used to obtain before and mutton Svere imported in large quau;4ities. Indeed, for a very long period ithe public has had its beef at a very cheap rate, and' now that there is a jslight rise in prices we hear the midjdleman's grumbles, forgetting that in ; ;i-he past v the feeding of steers has been jmade a comparatively unremunerative 'business becauso the public has sought -its meat at a cheap rate. Then, again, jirhat shall we say of the mutton market? .Did the ' butcher drop prices .commensurately with the fall in- whole'•sale quotations?.- Not, at '.all!. He .merely pocketed the 'larger -profit- and ;eaid nothing. ■ There are two 1 sides to • j«very question;, and it is just as well Ithat both should be ■ presented to the ,public when' a 'great problem like; this jcoanes before them. ■ ■ ■ • "Bacon is high and pork is'dear'because supplies are short—not necessarily short in'this-country,' but. abroad, flndeed, £3 we cannot produce 'as much ,'as we . want, it. is obvious that the fujture of the. trade lies' not ynth'the ;Eome breeder/ but with the importer.fit seems to us, therefore, that the .'butchers' position-is this: 'Give, us meat jcheap, and we. will keep lip the fiction Ithat the foreign is as good as the . '.Home, letting cattle in on the i hoof jfrom the Argentine and other'countries rso that the ."home killed" ticket .may Jhe used wiffi :? some truth.' "Whether ;iho English farmer makes a profit or rnot the retailer does not care. If tho -jbntcher were wise in his own -Genera-, Ition he would'clearly perceive i; that the future lies not*-abroad,-but..at Home; that the English feeder should be encouraged to produce as much as will compete with the foreigner, bo that iri•stead of becoming largely dependent '.upon external sources of production tho Jbutcher will have at least a steady pull ,'iin the English market