"WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH MUTTON?"

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1091, 1 April 1911, Page 8

"WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH MUTTON?"

;- ; AN AMERICAN QUERY. ' . . "What's, the matter .with, mutton?" asks the.'.'Breeders' Gazette" (Chicago). The. paper proceeds:—."Mutton is by far the cheapest meat available in tho TJnit,'ed. States, and yet it is not meeti ing the consumptive demand prices warI Tant, Last. year when it was a skyhigh market the public fairly clamoured for'mutton; now at.a 40 per cent, decline it congests outlet channels. "That consumers are not getting their share of tho depreciation is more than a suspicion. . Thcro is an inexplicable disparity..,-.between cost. of sheep and lambs on' the hoof and _ quotations pri chops arid roasts'on retailers' counters. ;As usual responsibility is saddled on ■'the other fellow,' everybody in the trade being willing to pass the blamo along, and blame,admittedly.exists. . , "Tho low level market this winter offered an excellent opportunity to pppulariso mutton, but it appears to hsve been wasted." . Iri another number of the "Gazette" is-.tho following:—"Enthusiasm over mutton feeding no longer runs .riot. Feeders by the hundred who got into the game, last fall for tho reason that mutton finishing had been profitable tho previous. season are cashing their ovine ■property, in most cases at a loss of one dollar per head,when every item of expense is reckoned with, and. registering a vow that 'they will never put a dollar into a sheep"; again. It is the stereotyped story, 111' on tho Bulges and' out on tho breaks, a certain method of losing money. _ Whilo the 'western breeder complained of the prices he was compelled to take last summer ho now realises that he did well, better probably, than ho is likely to during the rim nf 1911. . . . Thousands who put in. sheep last fall are returning to cattle."