1905.] Live Weight Prices of Cattle. 



729 



In order that the bacteria might have the most thorough 

 practical test possible, the Department of Agriculture dis- 

 tributed between November, 1902, and November, 1904, about 

 12,500 separate packages of inoculating material. While it has 

 been impossible to receive reports from all experimenters, the 

 percentage of replies has been unusually large, and these are 

 considered to be quite sufficient to enable a fair opinion to 

 be formed as to the value of the cultures received. 



The reports comprised in most cases a general statement of 

 the results obtained, and a selection from the replies is given in 

 the bulletin. 



LIVE WEIGHT PRICES OF CATTLE IN 1904. 



The returns received during the year 1904 in respect of the 

 twenty-one places in Great Britain scheduled under the Markets 

 and Fairs (Weighing of Cattle) Act, 1 891, show that the number 

 of cattle entering the markets at those places was 1,177,717, 

 as compared with 1,262,301 in the previous year. There was 

 also a reduction of 182,000 in the number of sheep ; while, on 

 the other hand, nearly 24,000 more swine were exposed. 



For the first ^time in the history of these returns a slight 

 check appears in the slow but steady progress of the system of 

 weighing cattle. In 1903 the number weighed at these scheduled 

 markets was slightly less than in the previous year, but relatively 

 to the reduced number entering the markets the proportion 

 was larger than in 1902. Last year, however, there was a 

 decline both in the number and proportion of cattle weighed, 

 which brought the figures to a position only slightly better than 

 in 1901. Though this decline is to be regretted, it is satisfactory 

 to know that it is. due almost entirely to a diminution of 16,500 

 in the number of cattle returned as weighed at Shrewsbury, and 

 that there is no evidence of any general decline in the practice 

 of weighing, which continues on the whole to make progress, 

 though in a varying degree, in different parts of the country. 



The returns for Scotland showed, as usual, a much more 

 extensive use of the weighbridge than is the case in England. 



