FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 435 



Crated animals sent by express must have crates bedded and feed 

 attached to crates on outside for long- journeys. Properly made crates 

 will have a sack pocket fastened at the end within the crate in which 

 hay may be stuffed, which sheep or calves may nibble at leisure. A 

 small V-shaped trough may also be placed in the end of the crate, in 

 which grain may be fed. If these additions to the crate are provided, the 

 agents along the line will see that the stock is watered. 



Shipping crates should be neither too large nor too small, just giv- 

 ing room for an animal to stand erect comfortably. The width should 

 be only three inches greater than the width of the body at the hips and 

 shoulders. Much room is objectionable. Animals firmly crated, with 

 suitable feed acompanying, can be expressed from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific with no trouble or injury under ordinary shipping conditions. 

 Crates should be light yet strong. 



Water is always supplied by railway and express agents along the 

 line. If an ordinary car is used, and the journey is a long one, then a 

 half barrel in which water can be placed should be put in a box stall 

 convenient to the animals. A slab of wood on the water will help to 

 keep it from slopping out. Regulation stock cars are provided with 

 water troughs, which are usually filled at points along the line, where 

 water from hydrants is convenient. These may be filled according to 

 the season and demand for drink; in warm, dry weather much more 

 water is required than at other times. Under such condifions hogs need 

 special attention. At some points along railways in the West, water 

 pipes with flattened iron nozzles are inserted between the slats of the 

 car. Water is then turned on from reservoirs and the hogs are drenched. 

 TJiis refreshes them and brings them to market in much better shape 

 than they would be otherwise. 



Feeding steers preparatory to shipment. Feeding steers preparatory 

 to shipment and en route is a matter of importance. John Clay, jr., 

 a well known buyer of Chicago, suggests the following: a 



•'A day or two previous to shipping, feed the cattle in a pen, and 

 feed hay only. The secret of shipping all classes of cattle is to place 

 them on the cars full of food, but with as little moisture as possible 

 A steer full of water is apt to have loose, bowels and show up badly in 

 the yards. Properly handled cattle should arrive in the sale pens dry 

 behind and ready for a good fill of water; not very thirsty, but in good 

 condition to drink freely. Many shippers think that by salting their 

 cattle or feeding them oats they can fool the buyers, but it always goes 

 against them to use unnatural amounts." 



Mr. J. A. Funkhouser, writing for the the Breeders' Gazette (January 

 18, 1893), on feeding steers for least shrinkage in a four hundred mile 

 journey, advises feeding all the hay they will eat and reducing the 

 grain one half for two or three days prior to shipment. If fed during 

 transit he would feed two hundred and fifty pounds of hay and one and 

 one half bushels of com per car. 



Discussing this same subject, A. L. Ames writes :& 



a Livestock Report, d iciRO, September 28, 1894. 

 /) Wallace's Farmer, .JuneJt), .Wi. 



