160 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



A ]\f ember: I heard of a treatment when they gave them both 

 the same day. 



Doctor Gibson: That is the proper simultaneons treatment: put 

 the serum in one thigh and tlie virus in the other. 



MARKET WEIGHING OP LIVE STOCK. 



BY JAMES E. DOWNING, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICITETURE. WASHINGTON, D. C. 



The present system of weighing stock to obtain the amount of freight 

 at Chicago was inaugurated twenty-five years ago. Since then the num- 

 ber of head received per year has increased 7,550,206, or 78 per cent, 

 while the valuation has increased $172,742,936, or 136 per cent. These 

 figures are taken from the reports of the Union Stock Yards Transit 

 Company, of Chicago. 



To meet this gain, the facilities at the yards have been increased 

 until there are now 500 acres of land occupied, of which 450 acres are 

 payed. The length of the railroad tracks is 300 miles. There are 13,000 

 pens, of which 8,500 are covered. There are 725 chutes, and 25,000 

 gates. On hot days, 7,000,000 gallons of water are consumed from the 

 twenty-five miles of troughs, fed by 90 miles of water pipe. At night 

 the 50 miles of electric light wire furnishes current for 450 arc lights 

 and 10,000 incandescent lamps. 



This market was established at the close of 1865. There were no 

 calves received until 1881. In 1912, there were over a half million 

 calves received alive and 3,383 dead. Approximately 16,000,000 other 

 animals were handled besides the calves during 1912, so that the claim, 

 "the greatest live stock market of the world," which is made for Chi- 

 cago, would appear to be fully justified. 



I have gone into these details to impress you with the growth of 

 the Chicago market in general, but what I desire to point out more spe- 

 cifically is the system now in use of arriving at the amount of freight 

 to be charged shippers. While other things at this great stock center 

 have advanced and improved, this system of weighing does not appear 

 to have kept step with other things in the last twenty-five years, or 

 since it was installed. One instance of the growth of the market that 

 has a direct bearing on the present system of weighing may here be 

 cited. I refer to the extension of the yards from time to time, which 

 has necessitated the removal of railroad tracks and scales, until today 

 the track scales of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul road, where 

 their cars are weighed, are as much as twenty-two miles distant from 

 the unloading chutes. After the cars are unloaded, they must be hauled 

 that distance before, the light or empty weights can be obtained. You 

 ean readily appreciate how much time such a method of weighing must 

 necessarily consume on a road that stands second in the amount of 

 stock delivered at the Chicago market. 



Furthermore, in weighing loaded cars drawn slowly over automatic 

 scales, as is the case at Chicago, the beam does not register anything 

 under 100 pounds. The drawbars of the cars are not uncoupled, so that 

 any downstrain goes as weight. The fractional part of 100 pounds and 



