A more accurate method is to take into account the fact that fat cattle as produced in the corn belt and marketed at Chicago are commonly made out of feeders which were bought a few months previously, taken to the farm, and finished chiefly on corn, together with a little in the way of pasture, hay, silage and concentrated feeds, such as cottonseed meal and oil meal. As an average of the ten-year period, 1906–1915, ordinary 1,000-pound feeders on Chicago, in October, cost $51.20. As an average of the ten-year period, these same 1,000-pound feeders, as ordinary, well-finished fat steers weighing 1,300 pounds each, sold the following April for $98.35. During this ten-year period it seemed to take $47.15 to cover the cost of feed, risk, labor, etc., of bringing a 1,000-pound feeder to 1,300-pound fat condition. Ordinarily, it is substantially accurate to measure these things in terms of corn only. During the ten-year period under consideration, the weighted price of corn was 61.5 cents. Dividing $47.15 by 61.5 cents equals 76.7 bushels. As an average of the ten-year period it has required the value of 76.7 bushels of weighted corn to make a 1,000-pound feeder, bought in October, moderately fat for the Chicago market the following April. The corn is weighted on the theory that the steers consume 8 per cent of it the month after they are bought, 15 per cent the second month, 20 per cent the third month, 20 per cent the fourth, 20 per cent the fifth, and 17 per cent the last month. Applying the ten-year ratio to the specific month of April, 1918, we find that a 1,000-pound feeder in October, 1917, cost $84, and the value of 76.7 bushels of composite corn was $139.40, making a total cost of the finished 1,300-pound steer, $223.40. The actual selling price in the month of April, 1918, was $199.55, or a loss of about $23.85 per steer. Applying the same method month by month, we get the chart as herewith published. It expresses profits and losses with a fair degree of accuracy to the ordinary cattleman who buys feeders at the central market and feeds them for five to seven months, largely on corn. During the winter of 1917–1918, the chart was not quite so accurate as usual, for the reason that the other expenses did not mount at this time as rapidly as corn. While heavy losses were incurred by cattle feeders, they were not so great as indicated in the chart. [Illustration: Illustrating the departure of prices of 1,300-pound native steers at Chicago from the ten-year ratio. ]