1910.] Live and Dead Meat Trade in September. 603 



Russian. The promise of the growing crop in Argentina was stated 

 to have improved considerably during the month, but this only adds 

 to the significance of the above figures, which we have seen to have 

 been ruling after such advices. Had Argentine crops, which August 

 drought had put in jeopardy, retrograded, the Michaelmas prices for 

 linseed must have been of quite a fancy description. Cottonseed closed 

 September with £g 125. 6d. per ton obtainable for Egyptian on spot, 

 The new crop for November shipment was offered at £1 per ton under 

 the spot price. This new Egyptian crop, which will be in the gather- 

 ing by the time this article, is published, was in late September 

 expected on semi-official estimates to be a very large one ; should it 

 prove so, it will come most opportunely to relieve a market in which 

 the shortness of supply has been much felt. 



Various. — New English beans have arrived on sale in increased 

 quantity, and the quality is superior to that of last year. New English 

 peas and rye, though crops of very different type, are alike in the wide 

 range of quality shown by samples. Beet-sugar has come down to 11s. 

 per cwt., as the new make from Central Europe will shortly be avail- 

 able. Rice has been a slow trade here, but value has been well main- 

 tained, the crop news from Japan, an important producer, being 

 adverse. 



THE LIVE AND DEAD MEAT TRADE IN 

 SEPTEMBER. 

 A. T. Matthews. 



Fat Cattle. — As Michaelmas approached, the end of the season for 

 finishing cattle satisfactorily on the pastures became every week more 

 visible in the condition of the cattle coming to market, and it was 

 inevitable that prices must suffer to some extent. There are good 

 grounds for believing, however, that the moderate reduction in the 

 averages during September was entirely owing to the want of finish, 

 and that if the quality could have been maintained there would have 

 been no decline at all. It is significant that all descriptions 

 of prime dead beef have about maintained their values, and also 

 that at almost the only market where stall-fed beasts were to be 

 found, viz., at Ipswich, the average for first quality Shorthorns was 

 as high as that of June, when beef touched its highest point. Com- 

 pared with the prices of a year ago those now ruling are higher 

 by nearly \d. per lb. 



The average price of Shorthorns in about twenty-one English 

 markets during September was Ss. 8|cL per stone, against 85. io^d. in 

 August. Second quality averaged ys. gfcL, and third 6s. iod., these 

 figures showing a very similar decline. The fall in Herefords was 

 also about 2d. per stone, their averages being Ss. nd. and Ss. 2d. for 

 first and second quality. Devons showed practically as good an 

 average as in August, realising gs. o\d. and 85., against gs. id. and 

 Ss. o^d. per 14 lb. The trade for cattle in Scotland was again rather 

 firmer than in the English markets, and in the third week fine bullocks 

 at Edinburgh made up to 485. per live cwt. 



Veal Calves. — There has been a steady demand for fat calves,, and 



