The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1873-02-11 00:00:00

DORCHESTER FARMERS' CLUB.
The nbegAr7 lasekhrg took pleas at the Kist's
Arms kaki, Dershastar, last Saturday eves*. Thom *
Wye pressat— Mr. J. G. Romer (Porkiest), Kr. R.
G 1
(Fleo.Prealisat), Mr. B. Daiwa, Mr. J. Gel*, 4,7%. W. Haber, Kr. H. W. Hew Was, Mr. A.l
Popo, Dr. Lldrldp, Kr. G. 1.0. Orepri, Mr. MI"
Pops, Mr. H. Pope, Mr. T. Look, Hr. Heuednillou. Mt.
T. C llaanders, Mr. C. Worse, Mr. c. Shark".
Mr. 1.6= Mr. Dash.
The Quorus old be had root pleasure In prow-
lag that the Mayor of Davits/stow (Mr. 0. J. G. Oregon)
be elected a member of the rub.
Mr. Guns eseesded. They nerved many kind-
nesses from the Corporation of Harshest's, and were
always gratified to hese their preemies amongst theta.
Carried unanimously.
Subsequently, Mr. 011.2001 T mld hellasked them
for admitting him a member of the olnb. As Mayor
of the county town of one of the largest agnsultural
districts In the west of England, 9 seemed to him that
he should be out of plies were hie not to associate him.
self somewhat with them. His knowledge of &aeon'.
ism was Tory limited, bet be herd Mat by attemlieg
their roestinp he should get • little more 'alight's-
:meal
The PROWDMIT mid he had meted the followlhj
leiter In reply to the one they seat to Mr. J. H.
Cieleraft at the lest meeting, thanking him for the
oition he made to the extra expenses for the
pe
Retardant Wareham, Jan. 11, 1873.
Data am much grittilial by your letter which I
reosired yesterday, on. eying torn. the welcome lotelllgerme
Mat my conduct at the met quarter ewelone respecting the
PruPeeed lone increase of pay to the police form wee ap-
proved by the Dorchester Tamers' Club. I beg you to eloelit
a. Chalroma my WWI.* that the oommeochdloo also well-
Informed and Influential • boil) of peinsinking and preatical
rose Is highly rained and fully approdated by Young truly.
J. U. Ckwatat.

John O. Boma, Cep
The annualdinner was fixed for 14th Much, at three
p.m., and th• Pzsamerr remarked thal they had had
▪ plement, sad well.attended meetlnp during ties
useoa, end he hoped the unnal dinner wo4lid 'be a
good sonrivial meeting, and show that the *lab woo
not going bask, bat doing good not only to themselves
but to the ommetasity at large. He hoped all the
members wde had got Mends woald invite them to
attend on that ossustoo.

TILI HlOll 11101 01 MILT.

Tbe PRZSIDMIT briefly introdueed Kr. ALI'S=
POPS, Solicitor, of Dorchester. to introduce the rubjest
of " The High Pries of Meat," mad the learned gtmetc-
man n ad the following paper:—
Mr. President and geallemen,—Th• sul-jsot which I
hthe the honour of bringing before you this evealtag
• The high prise of mese is one uhioh I have a
oossidereble amount of diffidence la treating upon,
feeling that it should have been handled by some mito
prat:Meal person than myself; but. being ore of the
many subjecte touched upon by Mr. Howard in hie
very doellent paper of December lad, and upon which
It seemed to be the desire of many members of Ibis
club that a further discussios should take plasm, as well
me a oorollary as It were to Mr. Wkittle'e Ten ahle
paper of lad month, I venture main to bring it before
you, feeling sure that any suggestion which may be
made, for inareasing the supply or diminishing the
demand of this, next to bread, the most esseniml of
our foods, cannot but be mooned with favour. T aim is
• subject, gentlemen, of great and Increasing import-
anew to us all. lilt of Importance to you me producers,
and it is of no less importance to me, and to the corn.
=unity as large as consumers ; and although you may
consider it to be to your advantage pecuniarily, to
keep up the present high prices, yet I do think that
you will not deny that it would be equally to your
advantage, and very mush to the welfare of the whole
nation, if some means could be devised, by which our
stock farms should be made to predates • great supply
of meet than they now do. and which oonseqnently the
protium would be esabled to bring into tbe market at a
shearer rate ; and I othaider It • duty, which we, se
• gnat meat consenting people, owe to ourselves, to
enquire by what means this may be beet effected. With
this view, and in order that I may be wattled to bring
my subject more clearly before you, I purpose divid-
ing my paper into four heads vii.: Pint —I shall
endeavour to show the gradual themes which has
during the lad 20 years taken plasm in the price of
meat: Secondly—l shall consider the cause of reek
increase in pries : Thlrdly—lts effect : and lastly—l will
offer a few suggestions, nopreetleal as they may be,
which U capabi. of being tarried out, wrath!, I think,
tend to berthas the supply sod loosen the pries of
moor, or at all events obviate another so setious an
advance as I shall thew you hea, during the lad 20
years taken *ea First then, as to the gradual the
In prim For the lad Hi years, Ido sot purpose going
further book, there has been a steady upward monomial
In the price of meat, and the prior we are now paying
are jest double what they were 22 years ago; and this
I shall show you on the authority of a leading trades-
man of this town, who has been good enough to supply
me with the average annual price charged a customer
for beef, mutton and lamb, since the year 1850.
For the year 1850, the enrage share* for beef and
mutton was sgd. to 6t per it; lamb and veal being
about the mom price. In 1851 it was 61., in 1863 it
was 60. told.; two years later in 1855 it bad rises
to 74d., lamb being at Si. and this price seems to have
condoned until the year 1860, when we find the average
to have reached as high as 81. The next material rise
dans to have takes piths in 1835, during which year
the average was Bgd., lamb being at 101. During the
great pude of 1866 and the cattle plague of the same
year, beef and mutton had risen to 91. par lb., lamb
Wog 11d., whereas two years later, namely in 1868,
we find it for a time as low as 70.; in 1869 and '7O it
had again got up to Std. and 91., and In 1871 sad '72
the average prise for tne best joints the 101. and lid.
per lb., lamb never being sold for lees than Is. Thus
you see, gentlemen, this rise of needy 100 per gent in
the price of meat darter( the last 22 years, has bees a
gradual one. and that the rise hag been greater,is proem..
Moo, with lamb and egal, than it has bees with mutton
and beef. Who can tell that this gradual ride of the
last 20 years will not be oontinued during the next 20,
so that by the year 1893 we shall thee to pay 2i. •
Wfor our beef and mutton. I say, gentlemen, if
erth so we should have • meat pante In this
counwhilditt7illllwhich
yet b.= bens,a greater
and which it relitti than
as "ea:
and all, to use our utmott endeavours to obviate.
Next, gentlemen, I am to consider the woes of this
great and gradual inerease in the prise of meat; and
the ceases which have combined to mato this are, in
my opinion, mod numerous. It cannot be denied that
the many disease, which have of late years been so
prevalent ameaget our stook, ani which have snootily
carried off so many millions, and the thesequent
restriotions on the importation of foreign cattle, has
tended materially to lemma the supply of fat most
brought into our markets; libillreee, oo the other hand,
the great commercial prosperity of the country, and
the otsiout large Menage of wages paid to artisans
and workmen has brought • new meat sae-
suming population Into the market. Thontends of
working men, who used rarely to get meat for
• their dinners, can now well afford, and beyond ell
desist do afford, to have it most days of their live.;
let us hops that this stets of prosperity may long con-
tinue. It was only the other day I caws &arose the
report of • meeting of working men held at Clorkenwell
in August last, to which they themselves most strongly
bear me out in this. I will quote from one of the
speakers, who is reported to have said-- There has
been a most extraordinary rise in the prim of that pert
of mutton madly used by the working damp, namely
breasts of mutton. Sir years ago they were sold at
3d. • pound and now they are 84. Legs of beef have
goes up from 2gd. to 74. Butter is double the pries
It used to be. On eggs then has been an advance of
60 per rent. and ea Lida 50 percent; coals are going
up alarmingly, even lustier naiad and firewood have
deemed in price. Every body are rising prism against
us, sod the publions who diL sell their beer at 31. •
quart seem to be our only friends.' The speaker
appears to have entirely led sight of the feet that
within the like period, :the wages of himself end his
fellows have inerethed In almost an equal proportion
with the pries of meat and provisions, and that to this
in/reams of wages is to be attributed to a very consider-
able extent, the present high prices of which be so
loudly complains. Theo again, gentlemen, there are
other ceases which seem *have le-dammed the pries of
toed ; the fall in the value of gold for laden**,
has had • far greater effect thereon, and I
think I may adi on the pries of almost
every other kind of food, than Is generally imagined.
I have shown that within the last twenty years
Met has risen in price almost to the extent of 100 per
mat. ; within the same period, the amount of gold solo
In adoulatiou has on the authority of Mr. Thomson
Berkey, othartned by Tie SCOSONIti, increased by at
lead 60 percent. Had the Incinthe in the apply of
meat, kept pees with the theressein the ripply of geld,
and the demand remained stetionary, we might have
expected, and we probably should now have had, meet
U the game pekoe as it WM 20 years ago, but, seeing
that the suppiy of gold hes intreamd by more than one
half, and the &mead for meat has increased in aldoet
the game ratio, the qsantrty now reoreeeated by the
sethrelms, which la the standard of value, can only be
*boat equal to that represented by the lialloovereign
odes.. 20 years ago. The gamed= of hot and dry
enamors too of 1868, '69, and '7O, thosing so thee after
the great estate plague year of 1866, leaded mash to
Wean our stook of store animals. And gentlemen, you ,
mance shat your eyes to the fast that the extravagaet I
of game, sopedally of pound gams
rremeittai parts of the country the tenants led duk so thee
r strops
devoured by hens and rabbit., and theatheently have
no ioduoentent to improve their cidtivatioo, tends mid
materially to Wien the feed producing qualities of our
lams. And this leads me to the question of does the
lead of England products eo large • quantity of food as
it millet do Most certainly, I should say, it does not,
and this I say not on my own responsibility but on the
authority of one of our most undoes and aline deter
mea—l mean Lord Derby, who tells us that the land
of England does sot produce on. kelt the amount of
Iced which it might if it were properly cultivated, and
If the amount were laid out on it which ought to be'
sad this brings me to another point, *bleb I thiak
was also touched upon In Mr. Howard's lesson,
• Is the prise which la new being given for
agricultural leads fictitious and fancy pries only, or is
It • pries width will, having a due regard to the areal
New in the shape of increase levels's, whist, has at late
years, and which may with oonlidesee, so long as the
peat emamerelal peasperity of tirls coma*, emellouis,
be esisaleed to theme thereat, in saddest to the smell
par emtemla the way el rid, ad to the quality of
pay the Idle investor es good • nears as If
Investedhe - In sway of the bobble esmse, or Ferelma
Looms open to acme who whilk or who have
to employ their espied and their Mont, whetwleVe2
Wad or body, separatelA; I 'ayes* it Is, and that as
the lead in this othatry biomes Man highly cultivated,
end is made to products mon, so will it become more
waluidie, and so will the position of the owner, thei
theapier, ad the eadiestorthereel alike be raised. And
now I will pass on to foodder the 3rd part of my
paper viz :the den of this great and Increasing death*
lath. prise of meat smill provident. By you geetlemen,
edam I think I may for the most part roped as pro-
damn, this gnat the fa the pries of meat sad fall in
the value of gold, well be felt jer differently to what it
will be by the poor eansitant, due feuroltelder, the
debeatun bolder, the mortgages, or by as poor pro-
*
Pond sees and others, who either have 'zed lasosnss
cc whew serv*es are reinusented by • seal* of fees
Ind when the ram weld pardon ) Ave Uses at
sea as it will at the pretest day. To you,bpationse.
Ibe offal thit sie will be tbal yes will benne 0..-
4