FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK -PART VI. 423 



Buyers and sellers. There are two classes of men in the yards about 

 the pens, the commission men selling and the buyers. The first thing 

 each morning these men inform themselves .regarding the quotations on 

 the various classes and grades of stock and the visible supply. If the 

 supply is short and the demand for certain grades is active, then the 

 buyers seek the salesmen; but if the market is dull and indifterent then 

 the sellers seek the buyers. Where men buy for the packing houses, 

 they receive a daily statement of the slaughter record of the animals pur- 

 chased by them the day previous. 



The buyer looks over a consignment of stock in the pens after a 

 price has been made by a salesman. He may accept at the price offered 

 or there may be some sparring over the price, and finally a sale may be 

 made by a nod of head or a wave of hand. 



Weighing in the yards. This takes place at various points, and the 

 larger the yards the greater the number of scales. These stock scales, 

 each in charge of a weighmaster, have large platforms capable of hold- 

 ing fifty or sixty mature cattle, and have a weighing capacity up to 

 100,000 pounds. 



The animals are driven from the pen to the scales soon after the 

 sale. The weighmaster. who is an employe of the yards, does the weigh- 

 ing, and a representative of the commission firm also takes a reading 

 from the beam. A scale ticket is then made out which gives the num- 

 ber of animals and the weight, and the names of the buyer and com- 

 mission firm making the sale. Four copies of the scale record of each 

 draft of animals are made by the weighmaster at one writing by a dupli- 

 cating process. One record is made in his peramnent record book; an- 

 other consisting of a detachable copy for the use of buyers" helpers at 

 the scales, which is placed on file for inspection, while third and fourth 

 copies are issued, respectively, to buyer and seller. One of the latter 

 serves as a certificate to adjust the buyer's accounts and the other the 

 seller's. 



All animals should be counted on leaving the scales, and, if not taken 

 in charge at once by the buyer or his representative, are placed in pens 

 and locked in. Authorized commission men are usually at the scales 

 to look after the weighed stock. After weighing, the stock may be de- 

 livered to any point desired, as, for example, to a packing house, or to 

 a stock car, or they may be driven out of the yards. 



Methods of settlement. Banking facilities are found in all promi- 

 nent stock yards in one or more organized banks of well established 

 credit. In view of the fact that the business of the yards is transacted 

 on a cash basis, a bank is very helpful to the great business interests of 

 the yards. 



Methods of settlement in stock yards may differ in minor details 

 in different cities, but in general they are much the same. After the 

 stock is weighed, the weighmaster's certificates, showing the number 

 and weight of the animals sold in each case, are delivered to the seller, 

 whether the owner of the stock in person or his commission agent. If 

 to the latter, a bill is sent to the purchaser, comprising a duplicate of 

 the scale record, with the selling price of the stock, and the amount of 



