Prices of Live Stock. 



411 



Rather fewer cattle, sheep, and swine were, it appears 

 shown in the markets in the three months in question, but 

 the diminution is not great compared with the like months 

 of 1896, nevertheless the numbers of cattle and sheep which 

 were weighed, and of which the prices were recorded in the 

 manner required by the statute, exhibit again an increase. 

 Of cattle the number whereof weights are reported is 

 now more than 11J per cent, of the total shown, and the 

 prices of about 8 per cent., for which complete information 

 was given, are recorded in these returns. In sheep, the 

 numbers weighed and priced are still relatively small, and 

 in the case of pigs the statistics are even more defective 

 than last year. 



Weighing, as the detailed table on page 414 shows, still 

 continues to be much more resorted to in Scotland than in 

 England. Out of 167,786 cattle shown in 14 English markets, 

 the number returned as weighed is under 8,000 in the three 

 months, prices being given with quality distinguished in 

 5,484 cases, whereas out of the 55,537 head shown in markets 

 and marts of Scotland, nearly a third, or 18,000 head, were 

 weighed, and full price particulars were supplied in 12,688 

 instances. 



A comparison of the returns for the first nine months 

 of the present year with those for the corresponding period 

 of 1896 shows only a slight improvement in the proportion of 

 cattle weighed. In England, out of a total of 571,952 beasts 

 shown in the markets this year, only 21,325 (or 37 per cent. ; 

 were passed over the weighbridge, while in the first three 

 quarters of last year, out of 566,302 cattle marketed, 20,248 (or 

 3 -6 per cent.) were weighed. For Scotland, the returns for the 

 same intervals show that in the current year 61,056 beasts 

 out of 192,424 (or 317 per cent.) were weighed; the 

 percentage last year being 31*1. 



Attention may be drawn to the number weighed at indivi- 

 dual places, as shown in the general table, wherein it appears 

 that no instance of the use of the weighbridge for any 

 description of animal, in the past quarter, was reported 

 from either Birmingham or Norwich, while the numbers 

 returned from Ashford, Bristol, Lincoln, and York were 



