802 
PRICES OF STORE CATTLE PER LIVE STONE, 
AND OFFICIAL QUOTATIONS. 
In the twenty-fifth volume of the second series of this Journal, (1889) 
I contributed, at the request of the J ournal Committee, a short article 
on weighing live stock. I did not then give, much less enlarge upon, 
the reasons for resorting to this practice, or the objections raised 
against its adoption. 
It seemed to be a subject that had passed out of the schools into 
the market, and that what has to be written further, to be useful, 
should be the experience of those who have sold and bought cattle 
over the machine. Among such persons will be those who, convinced 
by practice of its advantages, resort to this test and guide in the general 
course of business ; some who by its means satisfy curiosity and 
confirm their wavering judgment at the time of a deal ; and others 
who, unable to identify themselves with the mechanical operation in 
the sight of all the world, buy by hand and eye, and then concede to 
a believer permission to pass the purchase over the scales. 
The resistance and ridicule, offered by the vendor to this igno- 
minious and suspicious handling of the stock he has disposed of, are 
in proportion to the price he imagines he has obtained, above the 
value of the day, from the "practical man " who can do without the 
machine. 
Anyhow, the method gains ground, and in Scotland has made a 
sure footing ; and I am able to give the weights and prices per head 
and per live stone of nearly 3,000 head of store cattle bought to 
graze or feed between October 1, 1889, and July 1, 1890. 
Some have been bought and weighed under my own eyes, but 
the figures and statistics relating to nearly all of them have been 
collected and tabulated by Mr. Westley Richards. 
The sales have taken place in localities far apart, and under diffe- 
rent conditions— at farms and fairs in Shropshire, at Welshpool, at 
Oswestry, at Penrith in Cumberland, at Lincoln, Rugby, Leicester, 
Oakham, Glasgow, and in Ireland. 
The stock, as may be inferred, have been of divers sorts and 
qualities : rough Irish, black-polled Irish, cross-bred polled Galloways 
(blue-greys) — "beauties"; rough, horned, very coarse Irish — "beasts" ; 
Welsh runts, Hereford cross- bred and pure-bred, shorthorns, English 
pure and cross-bred Irish, horned and dishorned, heifers of all the 
above breeds, superior and inferior, and some few cows, and to these 
are added from the Dominion some nice Canadians. 
The first lot of stores I have an account of is one of 700, sold in 
October 1889 by one grazier in Ireland. They were rough cattle, 
Mayo mountain bullocks, weighing sixty-three stone each and cost- 
ing in Ireland 101. 18s., the price per stone being 3s. b\d. On the. 
26th of the same month 12 cross-bred polled Galloways, blue- 
grey, best quality, weighing 68Jy stones, cost in Rutland is. 0!//. per 
live stone, and on November 23, 5 pure-bred Galloways, 63 stones, 
