THE ENGLISH MUTTON SITUATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2895, 8 September 1909, Page 19

THE ENGLISH MUTTON SITUATION.

The editor of the American Shcepbreeder, after paying a visit to England, writ? 3on the subject of the price of mutton. As an observant outs'der his remarks are of great interest. Ho opens the article thus: — T- What's the matter with the Epsfh'«h mutton ma-kef We put this question from the Scotch border to Kent, to =heep-breedsr, butcher, and consumer, to editors of livestock and farm journals, and all others in-t-erested in the question. 'lon"fc it strange/ ' We don't know,' ' We cannot understand,' and ' What do^s it all mean?' are the only responses 30U get. Go to the cheap or high-cla.« " ic-staurants, the ordinary or 'swell' hotel, or into th-e homos in the cities and ■> illagc=, and you never can tell what 'land of mutton you aie going to eat. Many of tho retail butcher shop? throughout England 'tell colonial meat only,' and are branches o f the big markets in the large cities. The shops handliug domestic meat only v ill be careful to tell you that it is the home-grown stuff only that they sell. The colonial market -\\ ill display in most attractive manner chops, roasts; and other cuts of bright, fresh-looking mutton, labelled ' River Plate,' 'Canterbury Lamb,' 'New Zealand,' etc., and will tell you that they can sell it from 'one-third to one-half cheaper than the domestic article,' and that 'it is all 0.X., too, in the cooking.' A domestic butcher will cay, 'Of course, tha frozen meat is not so good ; it must be less wholesome from the fact _of its having been frozen so long, and it is bound to lose its juices in the cooking.' The majority of the consumers will say, ' We do not know what we aro eating in tho public places. It ms.j be domestic and it may be frozen.

Some of the frozen Canterbury lanrb is just a 6 nice as the home-grown.' A meat-mark-ing bill requiring the labelling of all foreign or colonial meat was before the House of I Lords, 'but was withdrawn. The majority of j consumers will tell you they believe that all mutton should be labelled and the sale of • I foreign or colonial meat as British an j I offence to be punished by law I I " The knowing one will tell you that the frozen meat ranks only with the English, meat of the second quality. Again, some consumer who is fond of Canterbury lamb will gay: 'Nothing can beat the Canterbury lamb,' so' here you have it". The writer tasted frozsn mutton in every form, and found a vast difference in its quality. It does not take the palate of an epicure to distinguish colonial from the domestic article. One naturally prefers the best. Mutton is cheap in England to-day. In fact, the average chop or roast is selling for .a price that brings it within the reach of almost every meat consumer. You" can buy a good mutton chop for about half what it costs in the United States. " The English mutton producer is not greatly worried under the prevailing low prices. He knows that his countrymen have been, ape, and always will be, mutton eaters. He knows that the production of domestic mutton is not keeping paeo with the rapid ineraase in the population in his country. . .He realises . that a' large amount of mutton must be imported from the English colonies and other countries. He is confident ;n; n the future, accepting the conditions aa they a-re, believing that prices will right ' themselves* "again, aoid that a jood measure of profit will always, follow the raising of firstclass mutton, the baby lamb or the old-time heavy-quartered English carcase."