TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 54T 



it stayed there just a few days and then dropped almost as rapidly as it 

 had advanced. 



These three months here after the first of July, the beef market fluc- 

 tuated more or less during July, but tended to reach a level which western 

 dressed beef was selling at in Chicago and the three eastern markets, at 

 23 to 25 cents, and the receipts of these two grades of cattle became fairly 

 uniform week by week. The week following the Fourth of July, they 

 advanced a little, and the market declined some, but after the second 

 week in July the receipts ran fairly uniform clear thru July and August 

 and well into September. You can see there was very little fluctuation in 

 the price or the range of prices during that month — or those two months 

 and on into September— and the price of dressed beef was fairly uniform, 

 with a few fluctuations at different markets, but within a range of about 

 a dollar. After we come into September, the beef market begins to fluc- 

 tuate more, but the receipts of these cattle are declining continuously. 

 We have 6,000 this week, about 3,700 this week, 5,000, 8,200 and 3,000, but 

 at the same time the receipts of choice cattle were — the demand for that 

 class of beef was sufficient that the price of the cattle advanced from 

 about $17.25 the first of August to about $18 the last of August and 

 reached the highest point, $18.35, in September— reached the highest 

 point of the fall, $18.50, in October. 



You see the receipts of these classes of cattle are declining continu- 

 ously until the last week in October, when there were less than 500 re- 

 ceived of choice cattle in one week, but after the market reached $18.50 

 it gradually declined with a few recoveries until we get down to about 

 an $18 top, but at the same time the market for dressed beef, for good 

 star beef in the east, began to weaken about the middle of October and 

 began to fall away with some recoveries on into November. After the 

 first week in November it began dropping and dropping and dropping 

 until the last week in November, when it was selling on the range in 

 the three eastern cities at 16i^, 17 and 18 cents. In spite of pretty good 

 receipts of choice and good cattle, the whole market went down with it, 

 so that at the end of November we had these cattle selling on a range 

 from 11 cents as the bottom on good cattle and 15 1/^ on choice cattle, 

 with an increasing spread all the time. It is apparent both from the chart 

 of the prices of beef and the movement of cattle prices during this time 

 that the price of this class of cattle was simply maintained during the 

 month of October and November because the receipts had fallen off to 

 such small numbers. If there had been anything like a large supply of 

 cattle during these two months, the price would have declined much 

 sooner, and the decline would have been much greater than it was. 



WEEKLY RATIOS. 



May 1.00 to 1.25 1.00 to 1.15 



1.00 to 1.15 1.00 to 1.10 



June 1.00 to 1.08 1.00 to 1.26 



1.00 to 1.13 1.00 to 1.27 



