55i 



LIVE WEIGHT PRICES OF CATTLE. 



The returns furnished to the Board of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries under the Markets and Fairs (Weighing of Cattle) 

 Act, 1 89 1, during the last quarter of 1903, enable the complete 

 figures for that year to be compiled. These returns, in addition 

 to the information which they furnish of the fluctuations in the 

 value of cattle in certain typical markets of Great Britain, afford 

 some indication of the growth since 1893 of the practice of 

 selling stock by live weight. 



The list of towns from which returns are received is given in 

 Table I on page 558, and including Carlisle and Falkirk, which 

 were added in 1898, they now number fifteen in England and 

 six in Scotland. 



The relation of the number of cattle returned as weighed to 

 the total number entering the scheduled markets in each year is 

 shown in the table on the next page. Whereas in 1893 tne P ro_ 

 portion was only 7*59 per cent., in 1903 it had risen to 14*53 P er 

 cent, having exhibited during the whole of the period a slow but 

 continuous increase, each succeeding year showing a higher per- 

 centage than its predecessor ; and the total number weighed 

 during the past two years having been almost exactly double 

 that returned in 1893. These figures, which include returns 

 from markets where no use whatever is made of the weigh- 

 bridges provided, as well as from towns where a substantial pro- 

 portion of the animals exposed for sale are weighed either before 

 or after being sold, may fairly be held to indicate that the 

 recognition by farmers generally of the advantage to be derived 

 from a precise knowledge of the weight of their animals is 

 gradual!)' but steadily extending. 



