Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1902 — VALUABLE FOR COMPARISON. [ARTICLE]

VALUABLE FOR COMPARISON.

Price* of Cattle and Meat During the Past Twelve Year*. Bulletin No. 30, recently issued by the Department of Labor, contains a most valuable exposition of the course of wholesale prices in the United States for the years 1890 to 1901 inclusive. Treating of the range of prices for cattle during these twelve years it is interesting at the present time to recall that the lowest price for choice to extra steers was touched in April, 1896, at from $3.85 to $4.25 per 100 pounds, while the highest for the same grade was reached in October, 1899, at from $6.50 to $7.T| The lowest and highest prices for good to choice steers quoted respectively are $3 t 3 $3.90 in January, 1890, and $5.65 to $6.40 in October, 1899. The lowest quotation for fresh beef, native sides, was 5 to 7 cents per pound in March, 1804, and the highest was 11 cents in December of the same year. The average price of cattle and sheep per hundred pounds in Chicago, according to quotations from the Daily Trade Bulletin during the years covered in this report, is shown in the first two price columns in the table. The average price per pound of beef and mutton during the same period as quoted in the government’s bulletin from the New York Journal of Commerce is shown in the second two price columns: (Per 100 lbs.) (Price per lb.) Year. Cattle. Sheep. Beef. Mutton. 1890 *4.13 *4.52 *0.068 *0.093 1891 5.00 4 51 .081 .086 1892 4.49 4.77 .076 .091 1893 4.83 3.87 .081 .080 1894 4.52 2.69 .074 .000 1895 4.93 2.94 .079 .062 1896... f.... 4.27 2.93 .069 .062 1897 4.77 3.49 .076 .072 1898 4.88 3.92 .078 .073 1899 5.38 3.88 .083 .071 1900 5.39 4.12 .080 .072 1901 6.59 3.35 .078 .067 The table shows that the wholesale prices of these food products have fluctuated in response to the fluctuation in that of the farm product from which they are derived. But apparently the average price of beef was proportionately lower during 1901 than the price of cattle, as will be seen by comparing the price of beef, .078 in 1901, when cattle averaged $5.59 per hundred, with the price in 1892, .076, when cattle averaged sl.lO lower per hundred. Another table in the bulletin shows that while the price of cattle in 1901 compared with the average price for 1890-1901 increased 15 to 18 per cent that of fresh beef increased only 2 per cent. The decrease in the price of sheep and mutton was almost exactly relative, being 10.8 and 10.5 per cent respectively.