The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1876-08-03
THE BEEF QUESTION.
The subject OF Butcherg Profits
Diseusged-Reply 10 the Bell
aire Butcher. ~ -.

WHEELING, August ..
Editors IntelllsGncer:
This morning, noticing before going
TO market, your allusion- to prices OF
meats, etc., In the Cincinnati market, l
could not but wonder why our market
could not afford the same articles at SIM
liar prices. II buy steak alone it is
Is cents per pound, or steak and roast,
it ia l24 or Is cents. do not recollect
to have purchased mutton or lamb at
less than 10 cents per.pound. Potatoes
are 25 cents per peck, and II Is only this
morning that ! have noticed any at that
price; while tomatoes, which you say
are selling at 10alG cents per peck in
Cincinnati, have with US but just come
down to 40 cents per peck.
Apropos Of this market business, l
must refer TO the communication which
appeared in your Mondays issue, pur-
porting to have been a correction by a
butcher. Of some previous statement in
regard to The prices Of beef. Either the
printers have done the writer Butcher" :"
Injustice or he himself had rather con-
lu5eu UOtlOH Vi WIN Ae hh9 "btSPHo
to explain. He says:
ut is true that butchers arc buying cattle for 9
10 4k oensp per pouud gross weight but tn dressing
tslttie losa one.half, which greatly changes the
bRurcs and makes thom read as followsj A steer
that weighs 1000 pounds grosI and cost ~ cents
per pound would make sIt The butcher gets eOo
pounds net beef at cents per pound, making $40"
In saying that cattle lose one.halt in
dressing, while l will allow the assertion
TO pass without contradiction in q gener-
al way, ! must say that rdojnot believe
that it will hold good in the quality oil
cattle which Butcher" cites as an exam
pie, viz: steers weighing 1000 pounds.
Good we'll fatted cattle Of 1000 pounds
will lose but little over two.ftths in
dressing. However, at this time, 1t is a
matter OF Indifference whether the loss ia
two.fiths or one-half. The point which
Butcher" tries to make is that 1000
pound steer gives him 500 pounds net,
which costs him S45, which is 0 cents per
pound. In his endeavor to make his
point very strong, his article says that in
cutting up steer there !; n 4
nAro al least 800 pounds Of soup bones and trlni-
mlpys over, that cost the butcher 8 cents per
pound, that he dsn't realize one cent per pound
II must be rather peculiar sort OF cat
lie that "Butcher" kills and serves up TO
the people OF Bellaire as beef, and out oi
which ne manages TO get 500 pounds oil
soup bones; there being in the first place
only 500 pounds including the choice cuts
that bring Is cents per pound. Butcher"
had better take = new observation and
correct his calculations. He adds that
there is only left for tbs, butchers profit,
on steer Of the above description, the
ofial, which he specifies as the hide, which
brings 81, the tallow which sells for So,
and the liver, heart and tongue which
bring another dollar, or total OF seven
dollars. ...
Admitting for arguments sake this state
ment TO be correct, find upon the authori-
ty OF one Of the guild that the butchers
make seven dollars upon cash outlay
OF forty-fve, or within fraction Of six
teen per cent. Now it has not been
many years since the time when this
writer knows that butchers considered
themselves doing fair business II they
made the hide and tallow clear. This
too at time when beef cattle cost o,29
and 3 cents per pound gross, and the bes:
cuts were sold in market at a price not
above 8 or 9 cents. Even now, according
to Butchers statement, this same ot1al as
he calls it, affords good profit on thein-
vestment; at least most people are willing
to be satisfied these times with any in.
vestment that yields dividend Of Z or 8
per cent per annum, TO say nothing oil
such weekly profts; as, according to
Butchers statement, are derived from
sales Of beef in the market.
But is the ofEal really all that the BUTCH
ers realize as protit2, As we are not 4
butcher we hold ourselves subject to cor
rection in any statement we make on this
point. In one respect the butcher ia
much like the lawyer, 1t being part OF his
skill to make the worse appear the better,
and any shrewd observer will be amused
to see how easily dextrous slap Of the
cleaver in the hands OF skilllul butcher
will put any reasonably fair beef up TO 9
or 9cents per lb. Observing this skillful
manipulation it is not hard to believe
that very little beef is sold at rate un-
profitable to the butcher, and believe 1t
altogether within bounds 10 assert that 'as
q rule butchers do not make less than
from three to Eve dollars on the meat OF
q thousand pound (gross) steer, Il
include OF course the Bellaire Butchers
500 pounds Of soup bone). In addition
II must be borne In mind that much ol
what "Butcher" dsnominates scrap and
which he seems to intimate is absolute
loss to the butchers, Is worked up into
various compounds under the. general
head Of sausage, which Is sold at I pre-.
sumo, fair profit. Another item which
10 very material consideration 70 that as
q rule the sale OF beef In our market is q
cash business, so that bad debts are not an
element Of loss in the business. 10.
l have lived at different times, all
within the last decade however, In various
country towns within a scope of fifty
miles from this city and in the very dis:
tricts where much Of the cattle supply OF
this city comes from, and have never
known the butchers in those places to sell
beef at q price above Q or 10 cents per
pound for the best. Some Of these butch.
ers gave every evidence Of prosperity,
accunulating property as rapidly at least
as persons engaged, in other lines OF bust
meas; this too 10 face OF the fact that much
Of their business was done on credit, and
Of course attended with more or less loss.
Neither did the butchers in these country
towns enjoy the advantages arising from
such combinations as the Butchers Asso.
citation Of thiscity, by which onr'butch-
ers can in measure control better
market for their hides and tallow, and
defend themselves, so 10 speak, against
the competition Of farmers who in coun-
try towns, inI the tall and early winter
supply large quantities Of beef to the peo..
pie at prices, by the quarter, considerably
below retail rates.
With the present comparatively low
ptices for beef cattle, meat Is retailea In
our market at figures but little below
those Of 1873, at which time according TO
an article in your paper few days since,
nearly all prices were at their highest
| point.
Ishall not At present undertake to ac-
count for this singular condition Of our
market, but will say in conclusion that II