The vastness of the live-stock industry in the United States is shown by the following statistics of domestic animals in 1910: Cattle (cows, bulls, etc.) 61,225,791; horses and colts 19,731,060; mules 4,183,572; asses and burros 110,012; sheep 51,809,068; swine 58,600,632; and goats 1,948,952. See Agriculture (Stock-Breeding and Stock-Feeding, p. 31); Cattle; Hog; Horse; Meat-Packing; Milk; Mule; Sheep; Swine; and Wool.
Stocks are the rights in the property of a corporation which those persons possess who have contributed to its capital. Each corporation has a certain capital-stock which may be raised for the purposes of its business but need not be fully paid up. This amount is divided into shares. Certificates are made out for these shares, say $100 shares or $10 shares as the case may be. These certificates are sent to those who have paid up the capital, in proportion to the amount which they have paid. Thus if the stocks be at par, a man who had subscribed $1,000 to a certain stock would receive ten $100 certificates. But the business of the corporation may fall short of expectations; or it may exceed them. In the former case the value of the paper certificates will decrease; in the latter case it will increase. So a stock is rarely at par, i. e., at such a mark that a hundred dollar certificate is worth exactly one hundred dollars. Stocks are liable to fluctuate in value not merely according to the value of the business which they represent, whether a mine, a railroad, a great commercial concern or what not, but according to the plentifulness or scarcity of money which is being invested.
There are many who almost gamble on the fluctuations of stocks. Some buy merely in order to sell; and it is to their interest to bull the stock or advance it in price. Others sell stock which perhaps they do not possess; believing that, by the time they will be compelled to hand over the stock, they will be able to buy it more cheaply than they have agreed to sell it. In the stock-market the former class are known as “bulls;” the latter as “bears.” The mere manipulation of stock is undesirable. The member of the public who thinks that he can compete with the professional stockbrokers is likely to suffer heavy loss. He will do better to make a genuine investment in a stock, with the idea, not of selling, but of getting good interest on his money from the dividends which the stock pays out of the proceeds of the business which it represents. On every transaction in stock the buyer or seller pays one-eighth per cent. of the money which he pays or receives for the stock to a broker. The number of brokers in a stock-exchange is limited. Their seats are property, and may be inherited; but they are occasionally sold to a would-be broker. A seat in the New York Stock Exchange has sold for $88,000. See Board of Trade.
Stock′ton, Cal., county-seat of San Joaquin County, is on an arm of San Joaquin River. It has a good harbor, and the river is navigable at all seasons from San Francisco. The city is supplied with water by artesian wells. There are a convent, a state hospital and factories of ironware, woolens, flour, engines, cars, window-glass, leather, soap and carriages. The city is served by the Southern Pacific (Central Pacific), Santa Fé and Western Pacific railroads, as also by two traction-companies. Population 23,253.
Stockton, Francis Richard, American author and humorist, was born at Philadelphia, April 5, 1834, and, after graduating at the high school of that city, took to journalism as a profession and to contributing to the magazines. Joining the staff of Scribner's Monthly, he wrote much for it and St. Nicholas, of which he became assistant-editor. In this appeared many of his delightful stories for the young. He became a prolific and industrious author, his stories revealing quaint but unobtrusive humor, with a brightly graphic quality and a literary style that commend his work to the educated and refined. His more prominent works embrace Rudder Grange, The Lady or the Tiger, Pomona's Travels, The Casting Away of Mrs. Leeks and Mrs. Aleshine, The Dusantes, The Great Stone of Sardis, A Bicycle of Cathay and The Captain's Toll-Gate. He died on April 20, 1902.
Stockton, Robert Field, an American naval officer, was born at Princeton, N. J., in 1795. He entered the navy in 1811, went to Africa in 1821, and helped to secure the republic of Liberia for the American Colonization Society. He was sent to the West Indies against the pirates and served in the Mediterranean. In 1845 he was sent to the Pacific coast, and next year, with Frémont, conquered California for the United States. In 1851 he was elected United States senator. He died at Princeton, N. J., Oct. 7, 1866.
Stock-Yards. Enclosures in cities where live-stock is cared for on its way to market or at market. With the development of the central and western states arose the necessity for convenient markets for distribution and sale of the enormous production of live-stock of these regions. (See
