A correspondent of the Times, who has studied the subject
on the spot, and who gives his estimates in careful detail, states that American meat costs 50. a pound to land in England, and that 61d. a pound yields the shippers' satisfactory profits. At that price, the supply, which already amounts to 15 per cent. of all imported meat, could be practically made unlimited, as enormous tracts of the finest pasture-land in the West remain still unoccupied. There is no chance that railroad freight will
rise, owing to the keenness of competition ; while the cost of freight by sea and of refrigerating appliances tends to diminish. This statement, if as accurate as it appears to be, guarantees Great Britain against any excessive rise in the price of meat, but does not threaten home stoek-breeders so harshly as was at one time expected. They could- produce very good meat, indeed, at 6-1-d. per pound wholesale price, though the beef might not be exactly that work of high art which we now eat at Christmas. We are all too apt to forget in discussing this question that the prices paid in West London to butchers for prime joints in no way represent the price they pay to the graziers, or even to the middlemen, who are now making for- tunes out of this, as out of every other trade. In the Metro- politan Cattle Market, the price on Friday averaged for second- class meat, not inferior, 71(1., the seller having the offal besides, worth, according to this letter, £3 per beast.
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