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99
The supply of mutton has been good throughout the year, but except for
two months in the summer the range of prices has been low. Some of the
finest mutton in the world is sent to the Central Market, but there also
come Dutch, Danish, and Colonial produce. This supplies the wants of so
many as to limit the number of buyers who can pay an extra price for a
first-class article. The result is that the best class of meat is almost always
relatively the lowest in price, and the appreciation of that fact will give an
outline of the trade in the best mutton throughout the year.
Pork has been a good trade through the fall of the year. It is hoped the
prices realised will stimulate production. We have, however, still to
complain of the irregularity of the inspection. In some places the heads only
of those which are tuberculous are condemned, while other authorities seem
too anxious to err on the side of severity. Any little cloudiness of the gland
is held to be a tuberculous deposit, and the carcase is seized accordingly.
This absence of uniformity is most embarrassing to dealers and bewildering
to those who have, like your Inspectors, to occupy a position midway
between the slaughterers and the retail trade, and are thus open to the criticism
and hostility of both.
3. Foreign-Killed, i.e., Continental, chiefly from Holland, Denmark,
and Belgium.—There has been a diminution in the supply of Continental
meat to the extent of 1,200 tons, and we are glad to say a much smaller
number of diseased pigs. The effect of the Foreign Meat Regulations has
been that all Dutch meat sent into this country must bear the label
of the Dutch examining officer, although instances occur from time to time
showing careless inspection, there is an evident desire on the part of the
authorities to conform to our requirements. There has been quite an average
supply of pork from Holland, which realised fair prices at the beginning of
the year and very good ones at the close. The mutton has been generally
good and has probably made quite as much as it was worth. Of Danish
meat there has been very little. Denmark has an excellent customer for all
its best meat in Germany, where the needs of the population increasing so
rapidly in numbers and wealth have absorbed most of what Denmark had to
spare. England can only have it when Germany does not want it, or when
it is not good enough to go there. There has been the usual autumnal
supply of pigs from Belgium, concerning which we are pleased to note that
inspection at the port of debarkation and on this side has left little room for
criticism, as all the weedy, wasted element seems to have been eliminated.
4. Cattle Imported Alive and Slaughtered at Deptford and
elsewhere.—We now come to what has hitherto been a very important
branch of the trade, but which seems to be undergoing a change, of which
the effects may be serious and far reaching. The ever-increasing population
of the United States seems to be rapidly reaching the point at which they will