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worm. These lambs must be slaughtered at once, and the markets are thus glutted with undesirable lamb and mutton and the prices are depressed for all receipts during the fall months.

Market Prices.

Chicago prices, modified primarily by differences in shipping charges, largely determine the price level at other markets, although temporary differences in supply and demand frequently cause appreciable divergences from the normal price differential. Differences in quality may also affect the normal differential between Chicago and other markets on a given day. The Chicago price varies from day to day and from week to week, and these variations are often quite wide. They frequently cause heavy losses, especially to sheep and lamb feeders.

heavy in the neck

The low quality of autumn receipts of natives results primarily from failure to dock all lambs and neglect to castrate the males. Docking and castrating are conspicuously present in areas where finewool sheep have been retained in whole or in part, and are conspicuously absent in most other parts of the fleece States region. Failure to dock results in very dirty hindquarters, which may not only hamper the lambs in their growth, but always injures their appearance on the market. They are unattractive to killers, and quite apart from other considerations, sheep feeders will seldom consent to handle them. Failure to castrate the males also results in inferior market animals unless slaughtered by 4 months of age. After that time they begin to develop the sex instinct and to become and shoulder, where the cheapest meat cuts are located, and relatively light in the loin and hindquarter. With the development of the sex instinct they also lose their "baby" fat and rarely replace it with other fat. Their meat also gets coarse and undesirable. At the same time they worry ewe lambs to a point where the latter lose flesh or are prevented from putting on flesh. This results in the entire lot selling considerably below good to prime native lambs. The price cut on buck lambs often is as high as 50 per cent of the price of native tops. In 1919, according to American Sheep Breeder and Wool Grower, April, 1920, 80 per cent of the native lambs reaching Chicago were uncastrated and undocked, and not over 10 per cent of the males had been altered. This was a larger percentage than ever before, and probably was due to the numerous beginners in sheep husbandry who had stocked up in 1918. A large percentage of the bucky lambs sold at $7 to $8 per 100 pounds in September and October of 1919, when native tops were bringing $14 to $15. The neat, blocky appearance of the docked and castrated western lambs is in striking contrast to most of the natives. The former sell for more on the hoof, but their higher quality gives a heavier carcass from the same live weight. The carcass is in every way more desirable and has a larger proportion of the higher-priced cuts. This type of lamb often is considerably cheaper on the hooks in the cooling room. In the case of coarse, bucky lambs, it frequently is difficult to cut the price on the market sufficiently to offset their undesirable carcass and low dressing percentage.

It is a question whether failure to dock and castrate is due more to indifference than to ignorance. Some growers dock the females and only alter the males. Others do neither, claiming that the animals are checked in their growth. There is no merit whatever in such a contention if the lambs are properly trimmed within two weeks after birth. Such lambs at 3 months of age are fully as heavy as those not cut but of similar breeding and kept under the same conditions. At four months of age, which is the time when most of the early lambs begin moving to market, they are somewhat heavier, and at five to six months of age they average 5 to 10 pounds heavier than the untrimmed lambs. While it is true that local country buyers often do not discriminate, when the lambs reach the market the docked and castrated loads always outsell uncut loads of the same weight and finish. On the average, the superior and more uniform quality and breeding of the western lambs enable them to outsell the natives considerably. However, well-bred, altered, and trimmed natives of equal quality sell on a par with western tops at the same weights. They are in a very small minority in the market receipts, and the buyers are always glad to pay a premium for them.

Age, quality, and weight, aside from variations in supply which have only a temporary effect, are the chief factors in determining differences in price between grades and classes of sheep and lambs. Because of the preference for lamb, sheep always sell for less than lambs. Spring lambs (marketed at 3 to 5 months of age, mainly between April 1 and August 1) practically always outsell older lambs, which are about 1 year of age at that time. Preference of the consuming public for light to medium weight cuts rather than heavy cuts also enables yearlings, frequently retailed as lamb, to outsell aged sheep. The latter are used mainly by the cheap restaurant trade.

Early Lamb Prices.

Figure 6 (page 287) shows the monthly prices of "firsts," or top quality lambs, at Louisville, and choice to fancy native lambs at Chicago during 1919 and 1920. The superior price of "spring" lambs, until about July 1, when equally or more desirable range lambs appear in quantities on the Chicago market in competition with the native spring lambs (which by that time are quoted as straight natives) is fairly well shown in this figure. It should be noted, however, that lambs other than "spring" which reach Chicago prior to July 1 have often been shorn just previously, and that this affects their price and the average price. The price of the limited arrivals of spring lambs at Chicago parallels that at Louisville. The dotted lines in the figure show the extreme drop from the April price (for very limited arrivals of spring lambs) to the May average after they have become more numerous at Louisville. The regular quotations prior to May 1 at Louisville are for limited arrivals of late-born lambs of the previous year's crop. They are less desirable than the fed arrivals at Chicago. The lower Louisville level after July is also arrivals at Chicago. The lower Louisville level after July also is due to poorer quality. This figure also shows the extent of the 1920 drop in price level as compared with 1919.

Price Averages and Variations.

The difference in the price per 100 pounds between lambs, yearlings, and older sheep, both westerns and natives, is shown in Table XXXVIII. Owing to the sharp advance in price which resulted from war conditions, the prices are grouped to show the averages for 1909-1915 and 1916-1919. These annual average prices are shown in the third and seventh lines in the table (reading across the page). The last line of the table shows the percentage of increase of war prices

FIG. 6.-Price of top native lambs, Chicago and Louisville, monthly averages, 1919 and

1920.

over prewar prices. Sheep prices rose 104 per cent, yearlings 100 per cent, and lambs 98 per cent.

During the cold season (December to May, inclusive) average prices range higher than from June to November, and yearlings and aged sheep sell closer to lambs. The price level for both sheep and lambs rises in December because of smaller receipts, but the price of desirable older sheep as compared with that of lambs usually rises in November owing to a perceptible though only temporary lowering in the quality of lambs during the late fall. This is more marked in December, but by January 1 the converging of prices from this particular cause is corrected. After January 1, undesirables in all classes are largely eliminated, and the higher relative price of sheep results from the fact that during the cold season heavier cuts move more freely in the consuming markets. Then, too, a large number (about 20 per cent) of the fed lambs which reach the market during the winter have been finished to too great a weight and have to sell considerably closer to yearling prices than lighter but equally wellfinished lambs. Lamb prices average higher during the winter months, however, than in the summer because of smaller receipts and higher quality. Lines 1, 2, 5, and 6 in Table XXXVIII show the average seasonal price differences by classes and subclasses of sheep and lambs. It will be noted that western sheep and lambs always outsell natives by a small amount. This does not mean that a prime

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"It will be noted that in the prewar period yearlings averaged $1.02 higher than sheep (or 20 per cent), lambs $1.37 above yearlings (22.3 per cent), and $2.39 higher than sheep (46.8 per cent). During the war period yearlings averaged $1.87 above sheep (18 per cent), lambs $2.55 higher than yearlings (21 per cent), and $4.42 above sheep (42.4 per cent). The slight narrowing of the percentage of spread between the prices of lambs and of older animals was due to a more limited supply of the latter, for which there always is a good demand up to a certain point. This would seem to indicate that except in abnormal seasons, such as the latter part of 1920, the market for mutton appears to be sufficiently strong to maintain about the present percentage of difference in price. It might seem that the demand for breeding ewes during the war period was the main cause for the narrower percentage difference in average price of sheep and lambs. But there was as great a gain in sheep prices relative to lamb prices during the winter season as during the summer season, and it is during midsummer and early fall that any pronounced demand for breeding ewes would affect prices. Only in 1917 does the price curve for sheep show a marked rise during this time of year. There is almost always a slight rise during November and December. For percentage differences in price of sheep, yearlings, and lambs, winter and summer, the following tabulation is presented: Seasonal difference in price of lambs relative to yearlings and sheep.

western lamb is superior to a prime native, but, as previously suggested, results from the higher average quality of the western animals.'

TABLE XXXVIII.-Price of native and western sheep, yearlings and lambs, Chicago, 1909-1915 and 1916-1919.

The average monthly price of native and western sheep and lambs at Chicago for the years 1909 to 1915 and 1916 to 1919 is presented in Figure 7 (page 290). This figure visualizes the average rise in price which has occurred as well as the monthly variation. The only point in this graph which calls for comment is the accentuation of the drop in June prices during the war period. June arrivals at Chicago are mainly lambs and sheep which have been wintered and shorn before sale for slaughter. The bulk is usually heavier than desired for the June market. This would depress the price in any case, and the removal of the fleece accentuates the drop in price. Because the price of wool rose relatively more than the price of sheep and lambs, a larger percentage of the June arrivals was shorn during the war years. This, of course, exaggerated the drop in June prices still more, owing to the enhanced value of the fleece. The slight rise during the month of August in the price of native and western sheep during the war years as against the absence of such rise in average prices prior to 1916 resulted largely from a greater demand for breeding ewes during the period of high prices. In contrast to this slight rise, there was a pronounced increase in the prices of sheep during the winter months.

The true effect of the price cut on culls is not shown in these averages, which are based on bulk sales. For instance, on September 29, 1919, choice to prime native lambs sold at $14.25 to $15, westerns at $14.75 to $15.50, and native culls at $7 to $9. Yearlings, all grades, sold at $8 to $11, wethers at $8 to $9.25, and cull wethers at $4 to $7.50. On September 27, 1920, choice to prime native lambs sold at $12.50 to $13, westerns at $13.50 to $13.75, and native culls at $8.50 to $9. Yearlings, all grades, sold at $7 to $10.25, wethers at $7.25 to $7.75, and cull wethers at $3.50 to $4.50.

1842°-21-19