LIVE STOCK BREEDERS ASSOCIATION. 



123 



COMPARATIVE AVERAGES BY YEARS. 



Name of Breed. 



1904 



No. of 

 sales 



No. 

 sold. 



Av'e 

 price. 



1903 



1903 



No. of 



sales 



No. 

 sold. 



Av'e 

 price. 



No. of 



sales. 



No. 

 sold. 



• Av'e 

 price. 



Shorthorn 



Hereford 



Aberdeen- Angus 



Galloway 



Polled Durham.. 

 Red Poll 



$260 40 

 265 70 

 259 i-0 

 185 15 

 221 !i5 

 248 03 



From this statement we see if they fall in the same proportion for 

 two more years thoroughbred cattle will be below cost of production for 

 breeding purposes. John Stuart Mills, the great political economist, lays 

 down a rule, that holds good in most cases — that supply and demand 

 regulate prices — that when an article falls in price below the cost of pro- 

 duction, production will fall away until profitable prices are reached. 

 The sales above would prove that the sales of registered cattle have di- 

 minished in numbers to correspond to fall in prices. This falling in num- 

 bers would indicate one of two things : either the cattle have remained 

 in the herds, or have found some outlet to other markets. I think 

 the latter is the case. I believe that the prudent breeder is pruning 

 down his herd by sending to the shambles the undesirable breeding 

 stuff; retaining the cream for future use. So the darkest cloud has its 

 silver lining. If we cannot improve at low prices the scrub herds of the 

 farmer and ranchman we can improve our thoroughbred herds by judi- 

 cious culling. No thermometer has yet been found that will apply to 

 registered cattle. If the public were thoroughly awakened to the fact 

 that a thoroughbred sire would add twenty per cent to the value of 

 their scrub herd the demand for blooded sires would increase, when 

 cattle at the stock yards fell in price. But the thoroughbred seems to be 

 at the long end of the pendulum, when beef cattle rise the thoroughbred 

 rises too high, when beef cattle fall the thoroughbred falls too low. 

 But one potent fact is eliminated from the fall and rise in cattle ; that the 

 butcher's block is the seal test. The sales of high grade steers at the 

 markets is more eloquent for good blood than all the breeder shows, and 

 the strongest advertisement for thoroughbred herds for the year 1904. 

 and to the intelligent feeder will bear fruit for- a future harvest, and 

 create a market for pure bred sires among the men who raise the 

 stackers. 



The packers are the basic cause of the rise and fall in prices for our 



