The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1882-05-27
MAY %, 1882
uIch Price OF Beef.

The prevailing high price OF meats In
the market, especially of beef, Causes
bitter complaints among ho~usekeepers
and retail butchers. In conversation
with a New York Tribune reporter, I.
c. Eastman, who is one of the largest
shippers of cattle from that port to
England, made this explanation: The
effect of the present high prices will be
to stop the exporting Of cattle, for the
reason that a steer is worth now more
money in New York than he is in Lon
don; and until q change takes place
there will be no cattle sent abroad, ex-
cept by shippers who have contracts to
fill and can't help themselves. L think
the price of cattle is largely due to the
scarcity OF corn. Every spring, be-
tween hay and grass, there Is an advance
in the price of stall fed cattle, but sew
eral causes have combined TO put the
rise this spring far beyond that Of any
previous years.
The west is the great reservoir from
NAlSu NC nav Jul LiOhbi AZ Nv guy
ply wanted by New York and the sea
board cities has been greater this year
than ever before, not only for home
consumption, but also for expectation.
The states east of the Mississippi that
have in former years raised a surplus of
cattle (which they sold in this market),
do not now raise more than is sufficient
for their own consumption, and they
have no stall fed cattle except a few
fancy lots, that reach here from Ohio
and Kentucky-not a drop in the buck
ct. There were driven through on the
trail from Texas last year nearly 500,-
600 head of cattle. Usually the stock
cattle from the summer drives from the
southwest are bought by the ranchmen
Of Wyoming, Montana, Colorado and
the northwest, and the 3 and 4 year old
beeves are taken by farmers in Missouri,
Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, and other corn
producing states, fed through one win
ter, and sent into the market in the
spring. This is the source from which
previously we have drawn our cattle.
Last summer the drouth nearly de-
Btroyed the corn crop in these states,
and what the drouth left the specula-
tors bought up and cornered, and the
result was that drives from texas were
taken almost entirely by packers In st.
Louis and Chicago and the ranchmen,
while the farmers to whom we are look
ing for our stall fed steers, shake their
heads and point to empty corn bins and
empty stalls. There Is the history OF
the rise in a nutshell.
When will relief come in the shape of
low prices2
had expected when the demand for
expectation had ceased that the prices
would fall, but they have not done so to
any great extent, and 1 suppose from
that that no relief ian be looked for
before the grass fed cattle begin to
ome in, which will be in about a
month. Prices are bound to go lower,
and l think the result will be q glut
after the scarcity-at least that is usu-
allg the case. 1 shall begin exporting
again when the grass cattle come in.
The cattle from the distilleries will be
coming in also. The cattle that have
been reaching here lately have been
of inferior grades. Steers that should
dress $50 lbs. were from 100 to $50 lbs.
light. There will be some, but not a
very great fall in prices until good crops
come, and every farmer can feed cattle
properly and put good cattle on the
market. do not think the supply of
cattle is running short in the country.
There are plenty Of stock cattle here,
and it will not be in my lifetime OF
yours, that the price of beef In the
market will be influenced by the search
t. of cattle to be bought. -Drovers
Journal.