No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 259 



butcher pays a comparatively high price for the common steer. The 

 butchers are paying now around $7.25 for pretty ordinary steers. 

 It seems to me that Pennsylvania people should adapt themselves 

 to the requirements of the meat market. They can buy this common 

 stuff cheap in the fall and they can sell it comparatively high from 

 the 1st of February on up to June or July. Of course if you have 

 to ship your cattle where they require high-class beef I would not 

 take that kind of cattle. 



I often wonder if the people of the State understand much about 

 the grades of cattle in the market. I remember a number of years 

 ago a man came to Pittsburg with a load of steers that sold for less 

 than our lowest quotations for common ones. He found out who 

 I was and he gave me a call-down. He said he had good cattle 

 and they sold below our low^est quotations. We went down and 

 looked them over. I had never seen such cattle as he had. I didn't 

 know cattle could be that common. They were little mouse-colored 

 and brindled knot-heads. Those cattle were raised somewhere in 

 the brush. They didn't have anything about them that good fat 

 cattle ought to have. Yet he thought he had good cattle and thought 

 he would get a good price for them. Now the market price does 

 not depend upon what your idea of cattle is. It depends on what 

 the killer's idea of cattle is, the man who cuts them up. It is his 

 ideas and not yours or mine that count. 



Would you like me to tell you something about the grades of 

 livestock? In the first place for the past winter the market-topping 

 steer has been one of some weight, smooth and fat, 1,350 to 1,450 

 pounds — they don't like them heavier than 1,450 pounds. This week 

 a load of cattle sold at |8.70 that topped the market. They weighed 

 j,434 pounds and they were good. Next to that we have a class of 

 cattle that have the weight and flesh but not quite as much quality. 

 They have not the shape, not the breeding, possibly too much soup 

 bone underneath, perhaps a little plain. Then we come to another 

 grade that weigh around 1,200 to 1,250 pounds, good and fleshy but 

 not quite heavy enough to bring the top, sometimes bringing more 

 than the heavier tj-pe but not at present; those cattle are selling 

 around |7.75. Then we have what we call good butcher steers, good 

 fat butcher steers, 1,100 to 1,150 pounds. They must be well shaped 

 and well bred and well finished, and you can get a steer that weight 

 now of good finish. I saw several loads of cattle of that kind sold 

 on Monday that I call good cattle, at $7.60 and $7.75. In the sum- 

 mer time they sell higher in proportion than the heavier cattle do, 

 but you all understand why. Butchers cannot keep the heavier car- 

 casses so well in the hot weather. Then we get beyond that and 

 have the ordinary class of butcher cattle weighing 1,000 to 1,050 

 pounds. They sell around |7.25 now. And then we go below that 

 to a rather common lot of butcher cattle, weighing 900 to 950 pounds 

 and selling at $6.50 @ 6.75. When you go below that you get into 

 the trashy class, $6.00 @ 6.25 the way the market is now. 



Perhaps I would better say something about market bulls, cows 

 and heifers. When I first went into the cattle business if you raised 

 a heifer, no matter how good, you got no price for it; 3 @ 3^ cents 

 for a good heifer. This has changed. To-day you can sell your fat 

 heifers to the butcher markets all over our State and get a good price 

 for them. I saw a load sell for $7.90 per cwt. the past winter and 



