Norwich bulletin., 1912-10-19
THE STORY OF A FAT STEERS SALE

is how much more food, per head, has been produced this year than last. They couldn't, for they don't know. Nor was it properly part of their task. But I fancy, if one really could find out that relation, he would find that there weren't going to be many more loayes of bread or buckwheat griddles, per mouth, this year than last. Of course it is all guess work, but we Yankees have the hereditary right to guess and l choose to guess that there1l be about enough to go round with proper economy, and much more, just as there was last year and the year before that, and all the other years of the long past
 don't anticipate any marked or permanent lowering of general prices, on account of these roseate crop prophecies. Naturally the spectators who control the market quotations will seek to keep those quotations moving up and down as fast and as far as possible. Naturally, I say, be- cause it is through these self fiucta- tions that they get their pickings. If a broker gets a percentage of profit every. time a stock hops up or drops a point why of course, he wants lem to keep moving. The more and the oftener the market fluctuates the larg- CT his ultimate gains. We may, there fore look for an unsettled period in prices. But I, for one, don't see any compelling reason to expect a much lower average. I certainly shall not give my few potatoes away, now, for fear they won't be worth anything next winter.
 Perhaps, In connection with this sub ject, recent interview with Col. J. B. Power of North Dakota on the sub ject of beef prices, may be interesting Col. Power has been raising beef cat tie for thirty years. All that time he has kept accounts with his cattle so that he knew, on any sale, just how much he had profited. Lately, how ever, he decided to find out just what made the beef he was fattening cost so much to the consumer. So he took bunch of fifteen steers and put them into prime condition. He sold them in open auction to the highest bidder, who happened to be Swift & O., of Chicago. Then Col. Power took one of the steers and followed it to the chopping block of the retail butcher. The results of this trail are illuminat- ing,
 In the first place the steer weighed | 1,313 pounds, alive. It brought Col. Power $S2, a profit of about $2.60. That is what Swift and Co. paid him. The steer dressed out just 760 pounds of beef for $6S.40 at the regular market l quotations of dressed beef for the day l That is. they sold 1t for s13.60 less than the live steer cost them. They didn't lose money, because they made up and more than made up their loss on the
 narketable meat by their profits on
 the hide, the stearin, the tallow, the buttons, the fertilizer, the glue, the bone charcoal, etc, which they rescued from the waste. But it's the beef we're considering. The farmer. sold it foI $S2 and made 8 profit of s26O: the packer sold it for $6S.4O and made s
 loss of s13.6o; the retailer sold it tc
 various consumers for $91. .50 and made
 a profit of $23.10, or about 25 per cent That's the story of one fat steer
 You'll note, if you analyse the figures that the farmer made only a yer,
 small profit in fattening, and that ths
 final cost to the consumer was only
 S9.50 more than what the farmer go for the live steer. Then why, in tht name of all the arithmetics, do yol
 and have to pay thirty cents a pount or more for our beef? The answer il
 to be found in two facts. The first ii
 that the original cost of the steer wa,
 very high, due to scarcity of avail
 able steers and to the high price O
 grain. The second fact, with whicl
 you and are more closely concerned
 IS that there was only a quarter O
 the beef from that 1918 pound stee which went into thirty-cent cuts. An other quarter went into fifteen-cen
 cuts, and the butcher had to sell al
 most a full half-49 per cent,-to b.
 accurate. for any price. some of 1t a low as three cents a pound, or no
 sell 1t at all As a matter of record
 he paid nine cents a pound for tn whole carcass. and sold the same car
 cass at an average of just a fraction over twelve cents a pound.
 The reason you and l had to pa.
 thirty cents was because we wante, ours from the fancy quarter: Ton
 wanted his from the same: Die wanted his from the same; Harr wanted his from the same:-and ther wasn't enough of the quarter to 2 'round We all wanted Dorterhous steak or siriofn roast, of which tn . supply was limited. and didn't yan1
 wouldn't buy. couldn't be given tn
 chuck and the scrag. So we got on
 fancy beef. as we had the right to,
 we are willing to pay the fanc
 price. And somebody else bought hal the critter for less than quarter tha
 same price.