440 



PRICES OF LIVE STOCK. 



[March 1897. 



PRICES OF LIVE STOCK AS RETURNED UNDER THE 

 WEIGHING OF CATTLE ACTS. 



The returns of prices obtained under the Markets and Fairs 

 (Weighing of Cattle) Act, 1891, are now complete for the year 

 1896. Summaries of the statements received by the Board of 

 Agriculture, showing the results both for the last quarter of the 

 year and for the whole twelve months, are given accordingly in 

 the present number of this J ournal. For convenience of reference 

 the data for the fourth quarter of 1896, as regards numbers of 

 animals weighed and prices returned, are supplied in tabular 

 form in the tables appended. 



On these details for the quarter the only remarks that need 

 be here offered relate to the continued increase in the number 

 of cattle, sheep, and swine weighed in the last three months of 

 1896, compared with the same period of 1895 or 1894 — an in- 

 crease which is all the greater as the total number of cattle 

 entering the markets was less than in either of the preceding 

 years, and the total number of sheep and swine less than in 

 1895. For the ten markets selected as showing the most com- 

 parable record of values, the average prices of cattle per cwt. 

 ranged from a minimum of 23s. 4d at Aberdeen for inferior 

 stock to 37s. lOd. for prime cattle in London in the quarter, 

 while the prices were, with scarcely any exception, below those 

 reported in the last three months of the preceding year. 



Turning to the more generally interesting figures for the 

 complete year 1896, and comparing the totals furnished with 

 those for the three earlier years for which statistics of this 

 nature have been collected from the 19 places scheduled for the 

 purpose under the Act of 1891, it is apparent that the total 

 number of cattle shown in these markets has slightly but 

 distinctly declined since 1898, the decline being greatest in the 

 latest year ; that sheep were less numerous by half a million 

 head ; and that the swine accounted for have fluctuated in number 

 from year to year. For every description of live stock, never- 

 theless, an increase is shown in the number of animals weighed 

 alive ; in those for which prices have been obtained and returned ; 

 and in those for which the prices so rendered were given with 

 sufficient distinction of grades to render the statistics valuable 

 for comparison. 



In both sheep arid swine the cases of weighing are still veiy 

 few in number, but it is a mark of some progress, although 

 not of very rapid advance, that as many as 109,000 cattle out 

 of 1,100,000, or practically 10 per cent., were passed over 

 the weighbridge of the 19 selected places in 1896, against only 

 ' 92,000 out of 1,219,000 in 1893, while the complete price records 



