THE PRICE OF CATTLE IN ENGLAND.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 205, 4 January 1872, Page 7

THE PRICE OF CATTLE IN ENGLAND.

" Mighty roast ■ beef- is an Englishman's food; it account i for- the humour that runs in his blood," and if, as M>. Disraeli said, a short time since, we are physically degenerating, our degeneration must be "attributed to this self same mighty roast beef being so conspicuous by its absence. The pieces of. beef that ' English workmen and laborers have seen for some time past must have grown fine by degrees and painfully less, and in too many cases beef must have disappeared altogether from the poor.man's table. Bearing in mind suoh unpleasant facts it it positively with a shudder that one reads of the enormous prices realised -by the sale of the stock. The other day at Holkar-Hallj Lancashire, where the sale of the Duke of, Devonshire's pedigree cattle took placa, the auctioneer, -Mr^Strafford, obtainedibr thirtyone cows no 'less than £7,691 ss, being an average , of £221 2s. ld a-piece. "Fbr twelve bulls 1 iibe aggregate of prices amounted to £2,658 12s; being an average of £221 11s per head. Altogether the froty-three animals realised the immense sum^of £10,349 17», being an average of £240 13a 10 J per animal. These are doubtless, very agreeable prices for the breeders of cattle, and connoisseur»of beef brought -to perfection ; but' UfdkuTg at. the matter as affecting the question ( of food supply, such enormous sums are .anything pleasant to fchink.^of. ■ I believe I an* right, when I say that within the memory of the present generation beef and mutton , were never so. dear as they are now. The bovine and ovine race of animals have, in fact, not increased in numbers proportionately to the increase of population. As compared to the carnivorous mass of the United, Kingdom, we have less meat now than ever. Hence, the natural increase of piice. ' I have tasted numerous ki ids of preserved meats, 1 but, ' riotw thstending all,tba,t has been written arid laid, about these 'yian^lft^ in, ng, one case hare I found this, tin -meat

equal to /the -genuine artic* p. In fact,preserve mejfcom_preserved meat, say -L, b.ut stiH I am" charitably, and r phii inthropfcally inclined, and think t is preserved meat is capital stufF-^br .others! While good English meat i» so'scarce and dear, it is a scandalo is shame to supply it to our prisons while the honest poor outside cannot ; get. any, I would have only thepre-"* " served descriptions of beef and mutton supplied these great criminal repositories ; but "stop ! I would see to it that prisoners had a fair proportion of horse ! If this were to give rise -to a horror of the prison, so much the better. — Home Paper.