LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. 



177 



cheaper. The shoulder clod makes a stewing piece. The neck makes 

 soup or mincemeat, and the shin a stew and several soup bones. 



The retail value of a yearling steer weighing 900 pounds was 

 computed on the basis of Columbia prices and totaled $50.44 for the 

 carcass, or, including the hide and some other salable part, the total 

 retail value of the steer was $61.03. The grade of beef represented 

 in this animal costs at the present time $7.52 per hundredweight, whole- 

 sale, and in Columbia cuts out $9.34 per hundredweight retail. This is the 

 best grade of prime native steer beef. This carcass could have been 

 handled at prevailing Columbia prices on a margin of 24.2 per cent to 

 cover expenses, shrinkage and profit. The grade of beef usually handled 

 in Columbia now costs $5.00 per hundredweight, dressed, and if it cut 

 out as profitable a carcass as this prime steer did, it could be handled 

 at present retail prices on a margin of 87 per cent to cover expenses, 

 shrinkage and profit. It is well to note, however, that wholesale prices 

 of meat are low at the present time and butchers' profits are higher 

 than they often are. Still the butcher can usually buy the kind of cattle 

 he handles in Columbia at from $2.25 to $3.25 per hundredweight alive, 

 and this estimate is not far wrong. The retailer fixes his scale of prices so 

 that he can afiford to do business at any price which dressed beef is likely 

 to reach ; then the lower the wholesale price of beef, and the lower the 

 grade handled, the greater will be his margin of profit. It is to his 

 interest to handle a low grade of beef, because he can buy this sort better 

 worth the money than any other. 



Table II. 

 COLUMBIA AND CHICAGO RETAIL PRICES OF MEAT. 



Chicago prices on No. 1 prime corn-fed native steer. 



Columbia prices on No. 3 native heifer. 



On basis of these prices the Chicago butcher does business with prime steers on a margin 

 of 30 per cent. The Columbia butcher could do business on same grade of carcass at current 

 prices on margin of 27 per cent. 



*Prices of Louis Pfaelzer & Sons. 



A— 12 



