270 



Prices of Live Stock. 



cieiit to explain the additional number either of cattle or of 

 swine which appear to have been exhibited for sale this year. 

 The excess in swine is mainly explained by the numbers 

 returned in Birmingham alone, whence about half of the pigs 

 shown as entering the English markets are now reported, 

 although no instance of weighing is there recorded. 



Placing side by side the returns of transactions for v/hich 

 prices, for each grade or quality, are duly shown, the total 

 numbers, it will be seen, both of cattle and of sheep are 

 greater than in the same quarter of 1897, and both England 

 and Scotland contribute to this increase ; but the per- 

 centage of animais weighed and priced is not quite so 

 high as in the previous three months of this year, for 

 weights and prices are quoted for only 2 J per cent, of the 

 English cattle shown, and for little over 22 per cent, of 

 those shown in Scotland. 



Sheep would appear to be weighed at 5 only of the 

 1 5 English markets and at 4 of the Scotch markets 

 in the list ; but in England no prices have been returned 

 except at Leeds and Liverpool, and the inability of the local 

 authorities to quote any price for such sheep as were weighed 

 in London, Sadford, and Wakefield is still without suf- 

 ficient explanation. 



In the first quarter of 1898 some cattle were weighed 

 at a,ll the 21 scheduled places; but in the quarter now 

 under review the market of York is conspicuous by having 

 no single case of weighing to record. Ashford, Salford, and 

 Wakefield have been unable to quote prices for the small 

 number of animals w^eighed at their markets, and the 

 defective returns from Birmingham, Lincoln, and Norwich 

 must be again reported as very unsatisfactory. 



The largest number of cattle weigh ei and priced in the 

 English towns in the quarter was at Carlisle, where 1,876 out 

 of 19,596 shown ha\e been returned ; and the largest reports 

 of weighing in Scotland come from Edinburgh, where 7,191 

 out of a total of 19,173, or rather less than were shown at 

 Carlisle, have been returned. Not quite half of the stock 

 weighed in Edinburgh has, however, been priced in the form 

 required by the orders issued under the Act of 1891, the 



