

43 



ing cattle. It is equally necessary to send the cattle to the 

 market in a condition to be most acceptable to the buyer and 

 at a time of year when they are in good demand and will bring 

 remunerative prices. The season of the year in which animals 

 are fed will of course affect directly the season of the year in 

 which they are marketed. The question arises, therefore, is 

 there any seasonal demand of the market which would affect 

 the question as to what season of the year is best to fit cattle? 

 The writer within the present year interviewed a number of 

 the most experienced livestock commission men and a few of the 

 buyers for the large packing houses on this point, submitting 

 to them the following questions : 



1. Has there been of late years as active a demand for 

 thick fat cattle in May and June, as formerly when most of 

 the grain-fed cattle were put on feed in October and finished 

 about the first of June? 



2. What season of the year, one year with another, do 

 you consider furnishes the best demand for average cattle fin- 

 ished about as the average native steer is finished? 



3. Would you indicate what you consider to be the poorest 

 season of the year for a man to hit, one year with another, and 

 can you give the reasons for these fluctuations in demand and 

 price? 



4. Outside of the Christmas market, what season of the 

 year does the market require the greatest number of fancy 

 beeves or cattle of the class that would grade as Christmas 

 cattle? 



5. Can it be said that any particular grade of cattle will 

 sell steadier, one day with another through the year, and 

 year after year, than all others ? That is to say, is there a grade 

 of cattle of which there is less fluctuation in the price? If so, 

 what grade is it, and what is the explanation of the stapleness, 

 so to speak, of this particular grade or class of cattle? 



6. Why is there such a wide variation in the price of 

 strictly fancy cattle from day to day, from month to month, 

 and from season to season, even when plainer sorts are selling 

 fairly steady? 



7. What weight do you now consider most popular with 

 the buyers, one season with another? 



