THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



169 



railways, and at the same time it may form a convenient 

 halting place for a large proportion of the produce of Ken- 

 tucky, Indiana, and Ohio, in transitu to eastern markets. 

 Ohio supplies its market with cheese and butter, and hogs 

 and cattle; Indiana supplies it chiefly with hogs; and 

 Kentucky, the great grazing State of the American Union, 

 supplies it chiefly with cattle. The trade of so great a cen- 

 tre of supply should be made familiar to those interested in 

 the provision trade of the United Kingdom. 



The trade returns of Cincinnati are carefully compiled 

 daily, under the direction of the Board of Trade, not with 

 the view of being advertised abroad, but to guide merchants 

 in their dealings. The latest returns published are for the 

 twelve months ending 1st September of the present year, 

 and the figures compared with similar returns of previous 

 years give all the information that is required. The supply 

 of cheese and butter for the present and previous years has 

 been as follows : — 



Butter. 



Barrels. Firkins and kegs. 



1860 15.209 34,468 



1857 11,352 10,818 



1856 11,361 12,422 



1855 10,185 7,132 



Cheese. 



Casks. Boxes. 



1860 110 227,095 



1857 238 176,623 



1856 77 190,983 



1855 78 183,379 



The price of butter has ranged from 6d. to Is. a pound, 

 and the price of cheese irora 4Jd. to 6d. a pound, the fluc- 

 tuation representing the relation subsisting betv/een demand 

 and supply, and having little or no reference to quality. 

 The quality of Cincinnati butter, it may be said, is usually 

 very fine — quite equal to the average of English dairies, the 

 climate of Ohio being good, the cow-feed excellent, the cows 

 well housed and cared for, and, lastly, the farmers' wives 

 and daughters being well practised iu butter making. The 

 same observations apply to cheese, and more than usually 

 mild descriptions are to be met with in Cincinnati. 



The supply of hogs and cattle for the present and pre- 

 vious years has been as follows : — 

 Hogs. 



1860 , 522,838 head. 



1857 407,729 „ 



1856 509,426 „ 



1855 496,360 „ 



Cattle. 



1860 43,182 head. 



1857 50,150 „ 



1856 54,400 „ 



1855 40,160 „ 



The price of pork has ranged from 25d. to S^d. a pound, 

 and the price of beef from 3id. to 42d. — the fluctuation, as 

 in the case of dairy produce, representing the relations of 

 demand and supply. The hogs brought to Cincinnati are 

 full grown, and generally corn fed, and the quality is there- 

 fore very fine. The cattle are also in prime condition, aud 

 are packed for exportation. Besides the receipts of live 

 hogs and beef cattle, there are large receipts of dressed 

 meats. The figures are as follows : — 



Pork and Bacon. 

 Hhds. Tierces. Bbls. Bulk lbs. 



1860 4,662 3,882 25,456 23,250.222 



1857 3,264 1,667 19,713 11,968,483 



1856 9,734 7,513 26,292 16.482,452 



1855 5,947 6,770 38,365 18,551,646 



Lard. 

 Barrel?. Kegs. 



1860 47.499 11,319 



1857 29.465 10,534 



1856 78.505 14,763 



1855 53,564 14,838 



The bulk meat, as it is called, is the only one of these 

 commodities about which it is necessary to say anything 

 respecting price. During the present season, bulk meat — 

 the shoulders of the hogs — has been sold on the average at the 

 low price of 3d. a pound. The highest prices current is 

 3Jcl., and a ^d. a pound more would pay the cost of trans- 

 portation to Liverpool. Large quantities of these shoulders 

 are imported every year, and they are not unfrtquently soaked, 

 aud afterwards dried aod smoked, and sold as hams at 6d. 

 and 7d. a pound. 



As a grain market Cincinnati is unimportant, it being 

 generally undesirable to make any break in grain shipments 

 fropi west to east. Although, therefore, in the centre of an 

 extensive grain-producing district, the receipts are limited 

 to the immediate neighbourhood, of which Cincinnati is pro- 

 perly the market town. The shipments of the present and 

 previous years have been as follows : — 



Flour. Wheat Corn. 



Bbls. Bush. Bush. 



1860 478,308 321,495 9fi,000 



1857 416,789 384,400 162,200 



1856 509,031 — 1,500,000 



1855 199,276 — 128,600 



The increase of the present season is therefore small, but 

 it is not improbable that since the 1st September the manu- 

 facture of flour in Cincinnati and the neighbourhood has 

 been much increased, in consequence of the large supplies 

 of wheat on hand in the neighbouring states, and the in- 

 ducements offered by the railways for the carriage of barrel 

 flour. 



It remains to notice the destination of the principal com- 

 modities exported from Cincinnati. At the present time. 

 New Orleans, and other ports on the Mississippi, receive 

 the bulk of the shipments, owing to the cheap transit of- 

 fered by the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers ; aud from 

 New Orleans shipments are made to New York. This is 

 almost exclusively the direction which beef and pork and 

 lard take ; while cheese and butter are more frequently con- 

 veyed by railway to New York. Wheat and flour are 

 carried higher up the Ohio river to Wheeling and other 

 ports, whence shipment is made to Baltimore and elsewhere 

 by the Baltimore and Ohio Railway, 



For the carrying on of this trade, perhaps greater facili- 

 ties are presented in Cincinnati than elsewhere, as a conse- 

 quence of the extent of the operations. The usual practice 

 is for arrangements to be made in New York that each 

 shipment may be drawn against at thirty or sixty, or some- 

 times at ninety days. The proceeds at once re-imburses 

 the shipper for his outlay, and enables him to carry on 

 his operations. In some cases, when such an arrangement 

 has been made, the Cincinnati banking house, through 

 whom the business is to ;be done, advances the required 

 capital to make the first purchases, and to put the trade in 

 motion. In Cincinnati, as elsewhere in the United States, 

 hogs and cattle and wheat and flour can only be obtained 

 for money down. While such are the inducements offered, 

 it is well known that there is scarcely a more hazardous 

 business than that of packing provisions either for sale in 

 New York or for exportation to the United Kingdom, The 

 production is spread over so wide an area that no sure cal- 

 culations of supply can be formed. 



The aggregate production of hogs in all the States may 

 in one year be a million and a-half ; in which case the sup- 

 ply is insuflScient for the demand, and high prices are ob- 

 tained, and the packers prosper ; or the production may 

 exceed three million hogs, in which case the supply is 

 largely in excess of the demand, and low prices rule, and 

 the packers are all, or nearly all, ruined. So with cattle. 

 The yield of a season is not known until the season ends, 

 when it .is too late to go deeper into transactions which 

 have left a large profit, and too late to retrieve the error of 

 investing money which can never be recovered. 



