1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Agriculture/The Trade in Live Stock between Ireland and Great Britain
The Trade in Live Stock between Ireland and Great Britain.
The compulsory slaughter at the place of landing does not extend to animals shipped from Ireland into Great Britain, and this is a matter of the highest importance to Irish stock-breeders, who find their best market close at hand on the east of St George’s Channel. Table XXV. shows the number of cattle, sheep and pigs shipped from Ireland into Great Britain in each of the fifteen years 1891–1905, the numbers of horses similarly shipped being also indicated. On the average rather more than half the total of cattle is made up of store animals for fattening or breeding purposes, the fattening of Irish stores being a business of considerable magnitude in Norfolk and other counties. Calves constitute about one-twelfth of the total number of cattle.
| Year. | Cattle. | Sheep. | Pigs. | Horses. |
| 1891 | 630,802 | 893,175 | 503,584 | 33,396 |
| 1892 | 624,457 | 1,080,202 | 500,951 | 32,481 |
| 1893 | 688,669 | 1,107,960 | 456,571 | 30,390 |
| 1894 | 826,954 | 957,101 | 584,967 | 33,589 |
| 1895 | 791,607 | 652,578 | 547,220 | 34,560 |
| 1896 | 681,560 | 737,306 | 610,589 | 39,856 |
| 1897 | 746,012 | 804,515 | 695,307 | 38,422 |
| 1898 | 803,362 | 833,458 | 588,785 | 38,804 |
| 1899 | 772,272 | 871,953 | 688,553 | 42,087 |
| 1900 | 745,519 | 862,263 | 715,202 | 35,606 |
| 1901 | 642,638 | 843,325 | 596,129 | 25,607 |
| 1902 | 959,241 | 1,055,802 | 637,972 | 25,260 |
| 1903 | 897,645 | 825,679 | 569,920 | 27,719 |
| 1904 | 772,363 | 739,266 | 505,080 | 27,500 |
| 1905 | 749,131 | 700,626 | 363,823 | 30,723 |
Most of the pigs sent from Ireland into Great Britain are fat, the store pigs accounting for less than one-tenth of the total number. The returns from Ireland under the Diseases of Animals Acts 1894 and 1896 are less significant than those of Great Britain. Thus, in the year ending June 1905, they included 4 outbreaks of anthrax, 219 of swine-fever and 343 of sheep-scab, while there were no cases of rabies. Compared with the export trade in live stock from Ireland to Great Britain the reciprocal trade from Great Britain to Ireland is small, and is largely restricted to animals for breeding purposes. Owing to the reappearance of foot-and-mouth disease in Great Britain early in 1900 the importation of cattle, sheep, goats and swine there from into Ireland was temporarily suspended by the authorities in the latter country.