537 



PRICES OF LIVE STOCK 

 as Returned under the Weighing of Cattle Act. 



The returns of prices obtained under the Markets and Fain* 

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

 year 1897. 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 Journal. 

 For convenience of reference with the quarterly statements 

 given in the last three numbers, the data for the fourth 

 quarter of 1897, showing the animals weighed and the prices 

 where fully returned, are supplied in the tables appended 

 on page 543. It need only be remarked on the details for the 

 quarter that the number of cattle and swine weighed in the 

 last three months of 1897 shows little variation from the same 

 period of 1 896, whi le the number of sheep weighed was greater 

 than before. For the ten markets selected as showing the 

 most comparable record of values, the average prices of cattle 

 per cwt. ranged from a minimum of 24s. 2d. at Aberdeen for 

 inferior stock to 38s. 2d. for prime cattle in London in the 

 quarter, while the current prices both of second and of first 

 quality fat stock were, with scarcely any exception, slightly 

 above those reported in the last three months of the pre- 

 ceding year. More fat cattle than in the previous quarter 

 were returned as sold by actual live weight, and considerably 

 more store cattle were weighed at the only two places, Edin- 

 burgh and Shrewsbury, from which transactions of this class 

 were reported. 



Turning to the more generally interesting figures for the 

 complete year 1897, the returns may be usefully compared 

 with those for the four earlier years for which statistics of this 

 nature have been collected from the nineteen places scheduled 



