LIVE-STOCK. 



507 



The tendency of prices with cattle will probably be to advance 

 within the next year or two, on account of the improbability of 

 increasing the stock of cattle as rapidly as the population is aug- 

 menting, but this advance will be slow and uncertain for a num- 

 ber of years. It will be at least two years before the stock of 

 cattle has been reduced to the proportion, as compared to popu- 

 lation, which existed in 1878, and then the mean price of steers 

 was but $4.25 per 100 pounds, or ten cents less than in 1889. In 

 other words, the price of steers for several years in the future 

 will depend more on the price of hogs, upon the value of the 

 exports of cattle and beef products, and upon the proportion of 

 steers marketed, than upon any changes likely to occur in the 

 number of cattle per 1000 of population existing in the country. 



The Export Trade in Animals and Meat Products. During 

 the calendar year 1889, the exports of animals and meats were 

 unusually large. The number of cattle exported reached 329,- 

 271. The largest number sent abroad in any preceding year 

 was 190,518, in 1884. The large exports of 1889 were due pri- 

 marily, no doubt, to the low price of cattle in the United States. 

 The active demand in Great Britain has been an important fac- 

 tor, as also the freedom of nearly the whole of the United States 

 from any dangerous contagious disease. With the rapid eradica- 

 tion of pleuro-pneumonia in this country, the confidence in' 

 American beef cattle has increased, and there is greater willing- 

 ness to receive and handle them. The following tables show 

 the exports of animals and meat products for the calendar years 

 1888 and 1889:- 



7*able showing number and value of animals exported for the calendar years 

 ending December 31, 1888 and 1889. 



