at
stock are to be bought for one-half, and even one-third of the
above prices; and there is every probability that before the
expiration of ten years, their value will be still more
considerably diminished. To be convinced of the truth of this
conjecture, we have only to look back a little into the annals of
the colony, and see how prodigiously cattle of every description
have multiplied. By a census taken at the end of the year 1800,
(twelve years after the institution of the colony) the number of
horses and mares was only 163; of horned cattle, 1024; and of
sheep, 6124. At the end of 1813, the horses and mares had
increased to 1891; the horned cattle to 21,513, and the sheep to
65,121: and in the month of November, 1817, the last year of
which we have received the census, the numbers were as follow:
horses and mares, 3072; horned cattle, 44,753; sheep, 170,420.
Thus it will be perceived, that in the space of seventeen years,
the stock of horses and mares has increased from 163, their
highest number for the first twelve years, to 3072; the stock of
horned cattle, from 1044 to 44,753; and the stock of sheep from
6124 to 170,920. This is of itself an increase great beyond all
ordinary computation; and it would appear still more surprising
if we could add to it the immense numbers of cattle and sheep
that have been slaughtered in the same period, for the supply of
the king's stores, and for general consumption.

From the foregoing statement is will be evident, that the
future increase in the stock will be still more prodigious, and
still more considerably outstrip the advance of population. The
price therefore of cattle, great and rapid as has been its past
declension, must annually experience a still further diminution.
Of what will be their probable value in ten years more, it may
enable us to form no very inaccurate estimate, by referring to
what it was ten years back. In 1808, a cow and calf were sold by
public auction for L105, and the price of middling cattle
was from L80 to L100. A breeding mare was at the same
period worth from 150 to 200 guineas, and ewes from L10 to
L20.

These immense prices, however, were the result of monopoly,
and consequently in a great measure fictitious; for in 1810, two
years after this, a herd of fine cattle were sold for L13
per head. This almost incredible reduction in the value of cattle
in so short a period, was occasioned by the supercession of this
monopoly by the governor,