REPORT OF THE STATISTICIAN. 



41 



Oxen and other cattle- — This class includes all neat stock except 

 milch cdfws. There was a considerable decline, in some sections quite 

 marked, in 1870, partly as a result of the general retrograde from the war 

 prices of precedingyears, and partly from the lecal scarcity of feed. It was 

 less in the South, where rates have ruled low, the breed inferior, and 

 the need of more and better stock is more and more realized. In the 

 West gen«'ally prices were lower, exeept in Wisconsin and Iowa, where 

 cattle are taking their proper place in the farm economy as exclusive 

 wheat-culture becomes unprofitable. It is gratifying to be able to state 

 that the bottom has been reached, according to the hopeful assurance 

 of the last annual report, and that the prices of farm-stock have not 

 continued "to suffer a greater depreciation than that which affects 

 other branches of productive industry." Cattle in Maine are held at 

 adA^anced rates, from the reason assigned for increase in prices of other 

 stock ; and an advance appears, also, in New Hampshire, Vermont, 

 Massachusetts, and Ehode Island. No material change of rates is 

 apparent in New York. In New Jersey prices have declined, and also 

 slightly in Pennsylvania. In Delaware, Maryland, Georgia, Alabama, 

 and Florida, some advance is noted, while in Virginia and South Caro- 

 lina rates are substantially unchanged, and in North Carolina not fully 

 sustained. The Texas rates are slightly declining, as follows: 



Date. 



t_ 



One year. 



Two years. 



February, 1873 . 

 January, 1872 . . 



$3 10 

 3 00 



$4 86 

 4 43 



Three years. 



S8 07 

 7 5G 



OVer three 

 yeaxs. 



?12 52 

 11 54 



So in Arkansas; while in Louisiana and Tennessee there is no mate- 

 rial change. The price of cattle three years old and upward has de- 

 clined in Kentucky from $39.41 to $37.51; in Ohio, from $15.10 to $42.43 ; 

 in Michigan, from $46,18 to $4G ; in Wisconsin, from $42.38 to $37.08 ; 

 in Minnesota, from $38.40 to $36.77. An advance appears in Indiana 

 from $30.53 to $39.00 ; in Illinois, from $36.40 to $38.83 ; in Iowa, from 

 $36.16 to $38.83; in Missouri, from $29.72 to $30.15. The younger cat- 

 tle command a iDroportionate increase in these States. A comx^arison of 

 prices (of three years old and upward) in these States is as follows : 



Taking all the States together, the prices of cattle of all grades are 

 well sustained amid the despondency arising from the low rates of many 

 other productions of the farm. The average for cattle of all ages, in all 

 the States, as found by dividing the grand aggregate of values of 

 " oxen and other cattle" by the total numbers in the country, was in 

 January, 1873, $20.06, instead of $19.61 in the previous annual investi- 

 gation. ^ 



The fluctuations of the past few years, and especially the great re- 

 duction in prices from the highest rates obtained since 1866, the first 

 year in which these returns were made for the entire country, will be 

 seen from an examination of the following table, which includes princi- 

 pal States of each section, and gives the prices of cattle of three years 

 old and upward : 



