Year: 1877

Messrs! Editors: How u happens that
whilst the price or ail Other articles Of do
mestic wear and consumption has gradu-
lally 30 declined Of late years as 70 con-


siderably tighten the cxpensse Of living,


there has been no appreciable decline In
| in the retail prices Of fresh meats, has


long been one Of those mysteries that


all classes OF housekeepers would be glad


to find out. It cannot be that the supply


of beef or mutton on the hoof has fallen


of, for the records of the receipts at the


stock yards show that such Is not the


fact. The weekly market reports of live


stock show thar exceptionally choice


beeves have fetched only from five to


five and three-quarier cents per pound


gross; beeves rated as first quality from


four to five cents, down through all


grades to two and a half cents per pound
most of the sales being from three and
| quarter to four and quarter cents per


pound. Stock sheep have been selling at


IL to 24 cents pound gross weight, and


lambs from tour to five cents per poond.
The average range Of prices for weeks
past has not been higher than what is


stated above. If then you take the state
meht usually made that cattle on the


hoof weighing one thousand pounds will
turn out when slaughtered five hundred


pounds of dressed beef, all OF which is


marketable, it follows that when cattle


cost at the stock yard from three and a
quarter to four and a quarter cents per


pound, and the loss in slaughtering is fif-
ty per cent. of the gross weight, the COS. :
to the butcher of the merchantable beef


is from six to eight cents per pound.


The actual cost seems, however, con-


siderably less, for, from the estimate
given above, must be deducted the sum


received from the sale of hides and tai
low, the horns, hoofs, bones and other
refuse, all of which are OF value because
capable of being turned to useful ac-
count. If these fetch but ten dollars
the green hide alone being worth from
seven to eight cents pound, and weigh
ing from seventy up to eighty and hun
dred pounds--the actual cost of the
dressed beef to the butcher is reduced
from this source two cents pound, max
ing it from four to six cents pound for
the entire carcass. If he can sell the in
terior pieces to almshouses and other
public institutions at an average of five
and a half cents a pound, and the better
kind of beef and steak at fourteen and
half cents a pound, and yet make a |
handsome profit on his cOntract-and !
this is what butchers are now doing in |
this city-I submit that to ask private |
customers ten cents pound on the ave- |
rage for the coarse pieces and twenty |
cents for the finer quality, and from six |
to eighteen cents for mutton that was
bought at the stock yard as late as Mon |
day last for two and half cents on the !
hoof, is certainly calculated to give rise |
to deep and well-founded complaint. IfI
the citizens of Baltimore want to get the |
choicest cuts Of American beef at a less
price than they pay for it at home, they
have only to cross the Atlantic and buy
it in the London market at fifteen cents |
pound Of quality equal to that for
which they have to pay at horne twenty
and twenty-five cents a pound. Ii the
trade in this exported beef, after paying
the cost of ocean transportation for two
thousand miles, Of inland carriage abroad
and the commissions of middle men, has
been found remunerative, what must be
the profits Of the butchers who incur


none Of these charges, and yet get for


their beef large increase on the price


at which fresh American beef of equal


quality is put down in the London mar


ket? HoUsEHoLDER.