_Explanation._—No. 1 gives the lowest price in successive months of lowest quality of beef steers. No. 2 gives the highest price in successive months for stock cattle. No. 3 gives the highest price in successive months for best quality of beef steers. No. 4 shows the fluctuations in the highest price per barrel of extra mess beef from month to month. No. 5 shows, by length of lines in each month, the receipts of cattle in Chicago by thousands. No. 6 gives the number of thousands of cattle received in each year. As in previous charts, the year runs from September 1 to August of the year following, though the relation of the beef market to the crops of the year is not so marked as that of the pork market. Although the correspondence in prices between these various parts of the cattle trade is not absolute, it is too striking to be consistent with independence of causes. The price of stock cattle has some elements not found in the price of beef cattle; and the price of lowest quality of beeves for canning purposes is naturally more uniform than any other prices. CHART NO. 13 [Chart.] Chart XIII. Annual fluctuations in prices of cattle and beef in Chicago, 1883-1897. Page 104. _Annual fluctuation in prices of cattle and beef, Chicago, 1883 to 1897_ _Explanation._—This chart is intended to illustrate the changes of prices in successive months upon the average of fifteen years, as to stock cattle, beef steers, mess beef and beef hams. The data are taken from the daily records of the Chicago Board of Trade, from September, 1883, to August, 1897. The figures to right and left indicate prices in dollars per hundred pounds live weight, and per barrel of beef products. No. 1 indicates the range of prices for beef hams. The upper line gives the average of highest prices in each month for fifteen years. The lower line gives the average of lowest prices for the same period. The diagonal lines give the extremes of prices within the fifteen years. _Mess beef and beef steers._—No. 3 gives the average of highest and lowest prices for mess beef. Nos. 4 and 6 give respectively the average of highest and lowest prices for beef steers. The diagonals give the extremes for beef steers during the entire period. No. 5 gives the average of highest prices for stock cattle. _Supply of cattle._—In the center, No. 2, is given the average receipts of cattle in the Chicago market for each month. The unshaded portion at the end of the lines, represents the average reshipment of cattle. Thus September, on the average, brings 265,000 cattle to Chicago and reships 90,000; while October brings nearly 283,000 and reships 82,000.