Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-23

actual increase. Department OF Agriculture
statistics for previous years were simply
guesses.
figures are guesses or estimates from crop
reporters and the like: Total of cattle,
other than mich cows, include calves, heif-
ers, old cows, oxen etc, not strictly beef
steers Therefore 1t is not quite exact to
take the average farm value per head
Of all cattle other than mich cows as q
basis for comparison with the price of
dressed beef from steer that probably net
ted its owner $50 or more. The farm value
of a beef steer is the price Of that steer
at market, less the freight paid to get him
there. The farm value cannot be correctly
deduced from such loose estimates as the
Department OF Agriculture makes, In
which values are usually figured, believe.
on tax returns, the tendency Of which Is to
be lower than actual value.
Averages Of stockyard Cattle.
when one comes to making averages
of stock-yards' beef cattle prices and COM
pairing them with dressed beef prices at
wholesale" continues my friend, the pack
er, ''he enters another very perplexing field.
Nobody appreciates this more than We who
are In the business. Beef cattle are vari-
ously graded or classified by cattle buyers,
packers, market reporters, and SO on, &C
cording to weight ana quality. and the
locality they come from, as native,
Texas western etc. 1t is difficult to give
price quotations and comparisons definite
meaning unless one knows exactly to what
grade or grades they apply. Then the num-
Der Of cattle of the respective grades that
come to market in any one day, week or
month or year, varies widely. which adds
to the difficulty Of figuring reasonably &C
curate average prices
But to return to the satisfies inccrpo-
rated In your article You take $40 per
hundredweight as the average price of beef
cattle (grade or grades not specifed), at the
Chicago stock yards in 1900, and then state
the price had declined on January / of this
year to 1922 per hundredweight tbs aver
mon to prime The local livestock statis-
ticians give $40 per hundredweight as the
average price of LOO to 500 pound native
beef steers In 1900. This grade corresponds.
for all practical purposes with the grades
we classify in our business as city beef ma
tive Our books show that the average
cost of city beef native steers for the first
week OF January, 1906, was $5.78 hundred
weight instead Of 1922. the figures you
have showing an increase over the 1906
price instead of decrease
1.-THE table in the second column of your
article also fails to agree with the figures
we have, namely. government figures on
average per. head value Of all cattle other
than mich cows; market reports on cost of
live beef cattle per hundredweight, and our
own records OF wholesale selling prices at
New York. The table states, for example,
that the third column shows average whole
sale prices of dressed beef at New York
for the year named; yet Ii includes a price
for 1906, which cannot be an average for
whole year. Whether these dressed beef
prices are the average for a year or for
week in the years named, cannot recon-
Gle them with our records.
The Packers Averages
"Our yearly average OF wholesale selling
prices at New York, for as far back as we
have them. are follows.