St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-05-17
The PRICE OF MEATS.
For a Good Piece Of Flesh a
Good Round Sum Must
Be Paid.
Prices Have Been Steadily
Advancing Since Last
January.
Poor Cattle and Dry Weather
Keep Butchers Prices
Advanced.
No Possibility Of Any Change,
Even With Range
Cattle.

st. Paul people like good meat and
they pay for it. A busy butcher said
yesterday: "We'ye got no Vanderbilts
nor Goulds; this isn't New York, Phila-
| delphia or Boston, where select cuts
run up as high as 80 cents per pound.
but our people want good, juicy, tender
meat and they get it at fair figures"
In buying meat it's a good deal like
buying watch. There are different
values in watches and different values
i'll meats. If one is content to take
leathery beefsteak it is largely
a question of cost. Since last
January the prices of cattle
have risen greatly. Henry Haas,
| an excellent authority says: eve paid
SIX cents per pound for the beef carcass
in January. 1t costs us nine and half
cents per pound now. Divide it into its
different cuts and account for the waste
and it is found that the percentage of
Use in retail prices is not equal to the
percentage of rise in live cattle. The
old price of good steaks was 121l and
10 cents, now % cents per pound, and
coarse cuts brought 10 cents. against the
u cents cost of the present"
A well-pOsted Jackson street concern
gave prices for good meats as follows:
SirlainS, 1o(020c: pOrterhOuSe steaks, 20
GI22c; chuck steaks. 1001215c: round
steaks, 1219@15c; veal, l2l501lSc; NUT
ton chops. 1S(020c: leg of mutton, l5(0
lSc: pork. 10(012Ic; SteWing beef, 1000
1219c; corned beef, S(01215c.
A few know that if a butcher pays So
per hundred pounds for live cattle. he
losses nearly half i'll killing-the waste
nd oh itNfyn 10
poorer the cattle are, the greater is his
Perceetaee of Loss.
1t don't pay the butchers to handle
rough cattle. Good live cattle are now
selling in Chicago at So, and more, per
hundred weight. The market has fuctu-
ated during the past few days, but the
prices of the butchers are beating time
with the rise in prices of live stock. and
while there was some decline recently
on cattle prices the values are now high
er than they have been for several years.
Yesterday 1925 was offered by the
Twin City Packing company
for medium good weights, and
the offer was refused. They have
paid up to $3.50 per 100 pounds for fine
cattle this season. A class of cattle
known as ''stockers ami feeders" de-
clned so cents per 100 pounds a week
ing the past two days. 1t may be well
TO repeat that 'stockers and feeders
are lanky, and need grass or corn, or
both, to extend their superstructure.
When corn is expensive, as it is now,
the business of cattle feeding is greatly
diminished. There has been a great
cry i'll the Twin Cities for low-priced
meats, which was largely filled by fur
nishing feeders and other inferior cattle.
st. Paul has nearly recovered from that
unfavorabe condition. The people de-
mand good beef, and are willing to pay
fair values therefor. There is no QueS-
ton but that a much larger proportion
of good beeves will be marketed here
now than there has been heretofore.
Cost Of Feeding.
The board of agriculture reports from
Washington that there is an increase
over last year Of more than 100 per cent
in the price of corn and oats, 50 per cent
and more in wheat in primitive mar
kets. 50 per cent in Chicago for choice
beeVeS, and 81 for Texans, and advanced
values of all cereals and meats. a hopeful
and cheerful feeling is noticed. says the
report, in official correspondence from
all parts of the country. The eimina-
ton of the surplus of corn and oats,
through the under production of last
year, ENSURES good prices for those crops,
and the shortage of the wheat of the
world for two years, with the low for
eign prospect for the growing crop,
promises the largest foreign demand for
ten years at remunerative prices. For
tunately present appearances indicate
ability to meet such demand with ease.
This condition of affairs has made a
livelier market for Texas cattle, of
which Armour. Morris and others, the
Big 4 principally, have bought over
100000 worth this season on the
range. OF course. such stock is not as
desirable as good, healthy Northwest
ern beeVeS, and it does not compete
with the butchers of this section as
much as it used to. A better market
for Montana cattle is in prospect
this season. and they will probably ar
rive a month earlier than usual. The dry
weSther is peculiar element in cattle
business. 1t makes good cattle higher
and thin cattle lower in prices. Any
well-pOsted cattle man can explain the
details in this regard.
While the new live stock inspection
laws of the United States add a tritling
expense to the consumer they are likely
land and Germany, and to cause a
greatly Increased demand for the live
stock products of this country.
In view of all the features presented
by the live stock reporters it seems evil
dent that the prices of live stock and of
meats are not likely TO vary much in
the near future. The fact IS estab-
lished, however, that Northwestern
people insist upon having good meats,
and that they like to use good, healthy
Minnesota products.