MARKETS AND EUEAL ORGANIZATION. 385 



TRACING SHIPMENTS OF CATTLE. 



Investigations relative to methods and cost of marketing live stock 

 and of marketing and distributing meat products and by-products 

 occupied the first half of the fiscal year. As a basis both for a special 

 report and for further investigations, typical shipments of cattle were 

 traced from various sections of the country to the more prominent 

 stockyard centers, itemized accounts being obtained of the various 

 transactions involved, including the wholesale and retail distribution 

 of the beef and its by-products. In this manner 12 lots of beef cattle 

 were followed from points in Oregon, Montana, Kansas, Texas, Ala- 

 bama, Illinois, and Virginia to the open markets at Portland (Oreg.) , 

 Fort Worth, Kansas City, East St. Louis, Chicago, and Baltimore. 

 Representative carcasses of each lot were traced to their destination, 

 the principal shipments having gone to Portland (Oreg.), Seattle, 

 Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Jersey City, 

 New York, Brooklyn, Providence, Boston, and a number of smaller 

 eastern cities. They ultimately were sold to family, hotel, restaurant, 

 and dining-car trade. Methods and costs of dressing and handling 

 beef by small local butchers and packers also have been investigated 

 by means of slaughter and retail cutting tests at seven cities and 

 towns in seven widely distributed States. The results of these tests, 

 together with a large amount of additional information pertaining 

 to the shipment, handling, sale, and slaughter of meat animals and 

 the wholesale distribution and retailing of meats, were tabulated 

 early in the calendar year 1915 and were made available for the use 

 of the Committee on the Economics of the Meat Situation appointed 

 by the Secretary of Agriculture. 



STUDY OF CENTRALIZED LIVE-STOCK MARKETS. 



A directory and descriptive file of all centralized live-stock mar- 

 kets in the United States is being compiled. The investigations 

 which resulted in this directory involved a detailed study of the 

 equipment, charges, selling agencies, dealers, buyers, slaughtering 

 establishments, number and character of receipts and shipments, 

 sources of live-stock supply and destination of live animals, beef 

 products and by-products shipped from each of the 30 live-stock 

 centers, extending from Boston to Portland (Oreg.) and from South 

 St. Paul to New Orleans. Approximately half the live stock mar- 

 keted in the United States passes through these central stockyard 

 points; and this investigation is designed to furnish a basis for the 

 determination of equitable charges and reasonable regulations neces- 

 sary to insure the most efficient service to the public at such markets. 



STUDY OF COOPERATIVE LIVE-STOCK SHIPPING ASSOCIATIONS. 



A field study of car-lot stock-shipping associations in the North- 

 west has been made, and shipments of some of the more successful 

 associations have been personally accompanied to the South St. 

 Paul, Chicago, and Buffalo markets to observe the methods used. 

 Material has been collected concerning the organization and methods 

 of these associations, for the information and aid of other com- 



22814°— AGR 1915 25 



