The Stock-Feeder's Manual: the chemistry of food in relation to the breeding and feeding of live stockCameron, Charles Alexander, Sir
Science
The Stock-Feeder's Manual: the chemistry of food in relation to the breeding and feeding of live stock
Cameron, Charles Alexander, Sir
Feeds; Livestock
And here two questions arise. How long shall we be able to supply the
increasing demand for meat? How long shall we be able to compete with
the foreign feeders? These are momentous queries for the British farmer,
and I trust they may be solved in a satisfactory manner. At any time
during the present century the foreign or colonial grower of wheat could
have undersold the British producer of that article, were the latter not
protected by a tariff; but cattle could not, as a general rule, be
imported into Great Britain at a cheaper rate than they could be
produced at home. Were there no corn imported, it is certain that the
price of bread would be greater than it is now, even if the grain
harvests had been better than they have been for some years past. A bad
cereal harvest in England raises the price of flour, but only to a small
and strictly limited extent, because, practically, there is no limit
to the amount of bread-stuffs procurable from abroad. When, on the
contrary, the turnip crop fails, or that excessive drought greatly
curtails the yield of grass, the price of meat and butter increases
greatly, and is but slightly modified by the importation of foreign
stock.
Hitherto the difficulty of transit has been so great that we have only
derived supplies of live stock from countries situated at a short
distance, such as Holstein and Holland. Vast herds of cattle are fed
with but little expense in America, and myriads of sheep are maintained
cheaply in Australia; but the immense distances which intervene between
our country and those remote and sparsely populated regions have,
hitherto, prevented the superabundant supply of animal food produced
therein from being available to the teeming population of the British
Isles. Should, however, any cheap mode of conveying live stock, or even
their flesh, from those and similarly circumstanced countries be
devised, it might render the production of meat in Britain a far less
profitable occupation than it is now. That we are increasing the area
from whence we draw our supplies of live stock is evident from the fact,
that within the last two years enormous numbers of horned stock have
been imported from Spain. In that extensive country there are noble
breeds of the ox; and it would appear that very large numbers of animals
could be annually exported, without depriving the inhabitants of a due
supply of bovine meat. As Spain is not very distant, it is likely that
this traffic will be increased, and that in a short time we shall be as
well supplied with Spanish beef as we are now provided with French
flour. Meat is at present dear, and is likely to continue so for some
time; but still it is evident that, sooner or later, the British feeders
will come into keen competition with the foreign producer of meat, and
that the price of their commodity will consequently fall. The mere
probability of such a state of things, were there no other reason,
should induce the feeder to devote increased attention to the
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