asked the Minister of Food what were the numbers of fat cattle pur- chased from farmers in the periods 1st December, 1945, to 1st March, 1946, and 1st December, 1946, to 1st March, 1947.

Two hundred and eighty-three thousand, two hundred and sixty three in the 13 weeks ended 2nd March, 1946, and 266,696 in the 13 weeks ended 1st March, 1947.

Is the Minister looking into the reason for this decline; and does he understand that this meat growing is extraordinarily difficult upon the very narrow margin which is now allowed?

No, Sir. I should not attribute it to that cause. I should attribute this particular small variation in the figures to the weather conditions of the last two months, and I should have thought that, from a long-term point of view, it is much more a question of the availability of feedingstuffs.