§ MR. JOHN HOPE (Fifeshire, W.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he is aware 431 that farmers and feeders of live stock in Scotland are interested in the system of valuing cattle by live weight, and that it is of importance to them to obtain full and accurate information as to prices in the various markets, and having regard to the fact that the reports which appear in the ordinary newspapers are unsatisfactory owing to their ususally giving the maximum and not the average prices, whether, with the view of supplying Scottish farmers with correct figures on the subject, the Board of Agriculture will cause the reprint from their Journal of March last, entitled Prices of Live Stock in 1900, to be added to the list of sixty-six leaflets already issued by them which may be obtained free of charge and post free on application to their secretary.
§ *MR. HANBURYI am in favour of the widest publication of all information likely to be of use to the farmer and hope to see the practice of selling by live weight extended. I do not understand how the circulation of the proposed leaflet, showing the prices of live stock sold by live weight during the past year, 1900, would give the information desired as to current prices. Whether the returns as to the prices of cattle sold by live weight or otherwise can be more generally obtained and be issued promptly so as to be of benefit to the farmer in his ordinary business is one of the subjects now being considered by Lord Mansfield's Committee on Scottish Agricultural Prices, but to do so would probably require both further expenditure and fresh legislation.