Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1879-05-02
Half Il Cenlury'S Prices.

MIR. y. A. Willard, the we'll known writer
upon agricultural ahd kindred topics, pub
iishel letter in the C0hHfrg Genti'mdn,
giving an interesting and valuable resume of
the varying prices of dairy products, pork
and flour from 1875 to the present time. In
tho year named cheese sold in New York at
an average price in January of II cents
Per pound, and butter at Is cents. In the
decade lS2j-%j the highest price for butter
was l. cents in lS27, and the lowest was Is
l. cents in 1890 the highest average price
for flour in January was SG,45 per barrel in
lS29, and the lowest was 81 50 in lS2G
the highest price for mess pork wa. Sl3 -
per larrcl in 1925, and the lowest Sll.50 in
1880. From 1890 to lS32 American cheese
was first shipped to England, the whole ship
ment for the first year being only IL, 1000
pounds. The lowest price for cheese during
the second decade, from 1885 to 1915, was
/ > 3 cents per pound in 1911, and the high
est l-3 cents in 1887 butter realized the
highest price, - cents. in lS3S, ami the
lowest, $ IL cents, in 1913; flour ranged
about half the time at about IS 50 per
barrel, the prices from 1896 to 1899
being from $50 to S9,li; the
highest price for Iork was $3.50
in 1881, and the lowest SS.S1 - in 1913.
In the third decade the highest price for
cheese was . II cents in 1854, this being
the highest price for thirty years the low
cst price for the decade was cents in
lsjl, butter went from T. - cents in
ls45 to ~ , cents in 1854 -four ranged
from : j a barrel to $3.50 II during this
period and pork from $9.3l IL to Sl9.G2.
The exports Of cheese had increased in 1850
to Slj,oO0 900 pounds, and the whole pro
duct OF the country for the year was not far
from 100, 900 900 pounds The highest price
for cheese during the fourth decade, from
le1j tn lsGj, was Il l. cents in 1861, and
the lowest was t II cents in 1858 but
ter touched its highest point, 24 cents, in
1854, and the lowest, II cents, in lsGl
-four sold as low as S4.ll in 1859 and as
high as ;Ss.lG in 1855 the lowest price for
pork was Sl22j in 1862 and the highest
Sl9.s, in 1864. The total exports of cheese
had risen in l-G4 to ~, ,s42 pounds.
From 1861 to 1875 the lowest price
for cheese was II 81 cents in 1872,
and the highest 20 cents in 1865.
The average price of butter in New York in
l>tj was u cents, and in ls72, it averaged
but | ) cents per pound, closing the decade
in 1874 at - cents Flour in 1868 started
at $40 per barrel Its lowest price was in
$50, when it touched 81 s. 1t closed the
decade in lN, at :,G per barrel. Mess pork
ranged at S2i2j per barrel in 1868, huctu-
ating and falling until i: touched Sl3 - in
in ls1Ii and closing at $lG.j0 per barrel in
lG77l. la regard to the present decade Mr.
Willard speaks As follows
I'VE are now in the middle of the sixth
decade since 1874, and for the first time in
- N'til"i Atlli flltli itti liC tAllCmC pressure
OF low prices. think it must be admitted
tina. dairymen had good reason to congratu-
late themselves on the prices received for
their products up to the time when they
began to market the crop of 1873. 1t seems
hardly necessary to speak of our increased
production, and the commercial history OF
the dairy during the season of 1873. 1t is
fresh in the minds of every one concerned in
this interest-a falling market from May to
December, and late ends drug in the inter
iOr markets at to cents. The result shows
that neither producer nor buyer has made
any money to boast of'-at least so far as
New York State goods are concerned. The
horizon of the future is not altogether un-
cloaced Sut So-ne thing arc clca--,he9
stand out in bold relief and cannot be mis-
taken. In the increased make of dairy pro-
duets, the markets can find no place for in
terior sorts at anything like living prices to
the producer. They are, and will be in the
future, slow Of sale, il not next to unstable.
The demand is for fine goods, and that de-
mand must be met, and it will be met by
those who have resolved upon sanding firmly
by the dairy industry who are intelligent
a1 to its needs and who have faith in its
future proSpcrlty~