310 



THE SOUTHEKN PLANTER. 



sell it at a remunerating profit or quit the bu- 

 siness. 



Respectfully, 



J. A. Hedges. 



Richmond Cattle Market. 



Mr. S/iooJc's Reply to Mr. II. B. Jones. 



By request of Mr. Shook, we insert, from 

 the Whig, his reply to Mr. Jones' article on 

 the Cattle Market in the last Planter. 



We did not know that Mr. Shook was the 

 party referred to by Mr. Jones, or we would 

 have given him notice. We do not feel called 

 on to take part in the controversy, but we 

 would suggest that the great difficulty consists 

 in the fact, which no skill of the agents or 

 salesmen can remedy, that there is not a pack- 

 ing house in the city of Richmond. It is very 

 possible, if there were, that there would still be 

 gluts of cattle ; but though they might never 

 bring as high prices as they now do upon an 

 open market, they would not be as low, be- 

 cause the surplus could be worked off by the 

 packers. The dissatisfaction which many now 

 feel, is owing to the extreme prices which a 

 glut and an open market now alternately pro- 

 duce. Each man likes to sell as high as his 

 neighbor, and luill not understand the cause of 

 the great fluctuations in the Richmond mar- 

 ket. If there were more uniformity, even un_ 

 der a lower average, there would be less com- 

 plaint because there would not be such wide 

 degrees of comparison. We are sure, of this, 

 because we were once both grazier and feeder 

 and know the general course of trade in the 

 Richmond cattle market. 



We shall make an effort shortly to have a 

 packing house started in Richmond by some 

 of our enterprizing and public-spirited citi- 

 zens. If they will not do it, and such men as 

 Messrs. Culling worth & Lindsey wTfT not, then 

 the graziers themselves ought to get up one. 



We would like to hear from our friends of 

 the South-west on this matter ; and would like 

 to know why an extensive packing establish- 

 ment might not be got up at Wytheville, or at 

 some point still nearer the Salt Works. If Alex- 

 ander Mathews, theCloyds, McGavocks, Kents, 

 Prestons, Sanders, and Crocketts take such a 

 thing in hand, we should not anticipate a fail- 

 ure. They pack both beef and pork by the 

 thousand in Illinois. Why not in the inte- 



rior of Virginia? Gentlemen, let us hear from 

 you.. Call your meeting for the South-west, 

 and have your tierces ready by the time the 

 steam ferry line goes into operation. Why 

 should cattle be driven to Baltimore and Phil- 

 adelphia, and "drifted" the full value of the 

 fifth quarter, and fed at nearly the same cost, 

 when all this might be saved except a little 

 freight? In Baltimore they import the salt, 

 the tan-bark, the staves, and the cattle. All 

 these, you, gentlemen, have at your own doors. 

 Start the thing for your own credit, and the 

 credit of the State, and relieve the "glut," 

 forever. Think of this, and you will see its 

 perfect feasibility. We predicted it for you 

 five years ago, and it is time our prophecy 

 were beginning to be fulfilled. 



Mr. Editor : — In the April number of the 

 Southern Planter, a communication relative 

 to the Richmond Cattle Market appeared, 

 whose authorship is claimed by Mr. Henry 

 B. Jones, of Rockbridge, and while as a whole 

 its object and tone are valueless, — and by no 

 means calculated to remedy the " evils" Jie 

 speaks of, still the article is absurdly unjust 

 and rather vindictive, bolstering up himself and 

 his far-fetched ideas, by slanderously assailing 

 a certain cattle agent in this city. I feel called 

 upon, after this necessary preface, to let the 

 people know, as well as Mr. Jones, the man- 

 ner of conducting my business ; and presum- 

 ing due attention to this subject will be paid 

 by your readers, (drovers and graziers especial- 

 ly,) I will commence by replying to his article. 

 He says: "Could the trade of your place be 

 so regulated that the sales of beef cattle would 

 be more uniform, I doubt not many of our fine 

 cattle which are now driven to Baltimore 

 would be disposed of in your market." Let 

 me ask this wise reformer what he means by 

 the word "regulated?" If he means a con- 

 tinual scarcity of cattle, which would always 

 keep an open market and thereby keep the 

 price very high and uniform, then I understand 

 him ; but if he means that cattle which he 

 may send here and bring into a crowded 

 market and sometimes ahead of his turn, (I 

 mean when others are ahead of him,) then he 

 may suggest his reform. What though can it 

 be ? One thing is very clear, that the only 

 possible way of keeping uniform prices is, to 

 keep the market all the time bare of beef. 

 How would this operate? Keeping cattle at 

 home simply to create this reform would be 

 "jumping out of the frying pan into the fire." 

 Cattle in a case like this would eat off their 

 heads at home, instead of near Richmond, 

 where they sometimes have to lay out a few 

 days, simply on account of a glutted market. 

 This position of Mr. Jones is so ridiculous as 

 not to merit notice — but let him have the full 



