92 



PRICES OF LIVE STOCK, 



[June 180& 



As regards sheep, a larger number are reported to have been 

 weighed, and a very considerable advance is apparent in the 

 number of cases where prices have been ascertained, chiefly, 

 however, in Scotland ; for in London, where 1,139 sheep were 

 weighed, the market authority, while finding itself in a position 

 to send satisfactory returns of prices of cattle, has only been 

 able to report the prices of sheep in 23 instances. 



As pointed out in former notices of these returns, the weigh- 

 bridge is much more largely used for cattle than for either 

 sheep or swine, but despite the advance above noted, the total 

 number of cases reported is still relatively small. The increase 

 of the present quarter appears both in England and in Scotland ; 

 but, as the subjoined figures show, the proportion of weighed 

 cattle in England to the whole number in the markets does not 

 yet reach 3 J per cent., and it is only for about two-thirds of the 

 weighed animals that prices have been reported in the prescribed 

 form. The comparison with the first quarters of 1895 and 1894 

 is as under : — 



Cattle at Scheduled Places in England. 



1st 

 Quarter, 

 1896. 



1st 

 Quarter, 

 1895. 



1st 

 Quarter, 

 1894. 



Number entering markets 

 Number weighed ... 

 Prices returned with quality distin- 

 guished. 



201,403 

 6,992 

 4,747 



210,777 

 6,237 

 3,709 



221,839 

 5,509 

 3,288 



From seven of the fourteen English towns the information 

 continues to be very unsatisfactory. Bristol returns no animals 

 at all as weighed, and very few are reported from Ashford, 

 Birmingham. Lincoln, Norwich, Wakefield, or York. 



In Scotland, on the other hand, nearly a third of all the 

 cattle accounted for have their weights reported, and the prices 

 of nearly all of these are supplied, although the inability of one 

 of the firms of auctioneers to obtain the particulars as to quality 

 has reduced the Scotch quotations of prices to some 68 per cent, 

 of the animals weighed. The returns stand as under : — 



Cattle at Scheduled Places in Scotland. 



1st 

 Quarter, 

 1896. 



1st 

 Quarter, 

 1895. 



1st 

 Quarter, 

 1894. 



Number entering markets 

 Number weighed - 

 Prices returned - 

 Prices returned with quality distin- 

 guished. 



59,420 

 19,198 

 18,962 

 13,169 



60,871 

 18,534 

 18,502 

 13,109 



60,723 

 17,078 

 17,065 

 10,690 j 



