Tuesday May 20.
We find that the number of bullocks entered for sale at Allerton’s this week is over 1,000 head less than last week, and consequently the price is considerably advanced, and nearly or quite all of the 3,250 head on sale will be disposed of before the close of the day – a larger number than usual having been disposed of on Monday upon terms more favorable to buyers than to-day. The brokers finding the arrivals very light this morning, held pretty hard for an advance equal to about half a cent a pound upon the quotations of our last weekly report, and buyers say that they got it every time they asked. Some of the drovers and cattle brokers insist that the advance is not over a quarter of a cent, but facts are against them. The price is not higher, but it is higher for an inferior class of bullocks, and the estimate of weight is against the buyers. The quality and price of cattle run remarkably even this week, and a very large portion of all on sale will be sold at a price to just average 8 cents a pound for the net weight of meat, and many more will be sold above 8 cents than below. Almost the entire stock on sale comes from Illinois. Part of them are distillery-fed, all are well fed, and many are extra fat, but very few sell at or over 8½ c a pound, net. The meanest lot in market came in this morning from Ohio, and the owner was offered a price fully equal to 7c, net, by a speculator. Beside the number being so much less this week the Government buyers took about 300 head of the best, leaving the butchers with such a short supply that high prices are anticipated next week, and some of the speculators hurried through their sales in order to make an early start to meet drovers on the way here. With the same number of bullocks at the next market, prices will, of course, run high.
– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 24, 1862, p. 3
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