442 



PRICES OF LIVE STOCK. 



[March 1897, 



only one animal in every hundred was recorded as having been 

 weighed. From none of the scheduled places is it reported, in 

 1896, that no use at all was made of the weighbridge, but the 

 unsatisfactory extent to which the sellers of stock as a body as 

 yet resort to the facilities which have been established for their 

 advantage by legislative provision is apparent from such 

 returns as those received from Ash ford, Birmingham, Lincoln, 

 or York, where the numbers of cattle weighed only ranged from 

 5 to 86 in the twelvemonth. 



The same table shows that of 41,685 instances of sheep being 

 weighed in 1896, four Scotch market centres supplied 31,830 

 cases, and eight of the English markets have no single instance 

 to report, the English returns coming almost exclusively from 

 the London, Liverpool, and Leeds markets. London is, how- 

 ever, again conspicuous for the very small per-centage of cases 

 in which the prices of such sheep as were weighed could be 

 ascertained, no such difficulty being apparent elsewhere. 



Leeds and Newcastle have nearly the monopoly of swine 

 weighing in England, but it is somewhat remarkable that of 

 the weighed swine in Newcastle the prices are in each case 

 duly reported, while in no instance has any price been returned 

 for any of the 2,888 cases in which swine were weighed at 

 Leeds. 



So far as the prices of the fat stock furnished during the 

 year are concerned, the following table gives the calculated 

 average values at five English and five Scotch markets, where 

 a fair number of quotations have been obtained, the number of 

 these being given under each of the three customary grades to 

 indicate the basis on which these averages rest : — 





Inferior. 

 (3rd Quality.) 



Good. 

 (2nd Quality.) 



Prime. 

 (1st Quality.) 



Places. 



Number. 



Price 

 per 

 Stone. 



Price 

 per 

 Cwt. 



Number. 



Price 

 per 

 Stone. 



Price 

 per 

 Cwt. 



Number. 



Price 

 per 

 Stone. 



Price 

 per 

 Cwt. 



Leeds - 



81 



s. d. 



3 4| 



s. d. 

 26 10 



350 



s. d. 



3 72- 



s. d. 



29 2 



809 



s. d. 



4 01 



s. d. 



32 2 



Liverpool 









1,901 



3 6| 



23 4 



4,523 



4 C| 



32 4 



London - 



194 



3 5| 



27 8 



2,273 



4 1 



82 8 



3,295 



4 71 



37 0 



Newcastle 



89 



3 3 



23 0 



203 



3 91 



SO 4 



1,507 . 



4 2| 



33 10 . 



Shrewsbury - 



161 



3 H 



25 0 



274 



3 9 



30 0 



19 



4 8| 



34 4 



Aberdeen 



4,520 



2 111 



21 8 



12,278 



3 11| 



31 6 



7,823 



4 44 



34 10 



Dundee 



664 



3 If 



25 2 



6,521 



3 11 



31 4 



4,661 



4 2| 



33 6 



Edinburgh - 



5 



3 4f 



27 2 



10,277 



4 Of 



32 6 



1,496 



4 2 



33 4 



Glasgow 









1,271 



3 11 



31 4 



1,020 



4 41 



35 0 



Perth - 



230 



3 8| 



29 10 



1,326 



3 111 



31 10 



1.218 



4 2| 



33 10 



* Return of cattle of inferior grade incomplete. Prom one mart 131 returned with average 

 price of 31s. Gd, per cwt. 



In the lowest grade the quotations are, as formerly, much more 

 scanty and incomplete than in the better classes,, except as 



