THIRTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IV 163 



one commission firm. One car weighs 20,000 pounds, another 22,000, 

 another 23,000, another 24,000, and another 25,000 pounds. The com- 

 bined weight of these cars is 114,000 pounds. The average weight of 

 these five cars is 22,800 pounds. Assuming the minimum fill allow- 

 ance of 500 pounds per car, this will reduce the net average weight to 

 22,300 pounds per car, and the freight on each car will be the same. 



7. After the freight is figured on this basis, the commission man 

 takes the slips with the car numbers and freight charges to the Stock 

 Yards Company, where the handling charges are added. This closes 

 the matter with the consignee. 



This, in brief, is the later method of weighing, whereby hoof or 

 selling weights are utilized as a basis for ascertaining the amount of 

 freight to be charged for. Let us take a moment and analyze this 

 method. I have weighed at different times and over various scales 

 several hundred empty stock cars, to ascertain the amount of bedding 

 contained in each. My experience is that it is not practical to attempt 

 to weigh more than twenty-five cars in one train, for the reason that 

 too much time is consumed in getting each car properly on the scales. 

 So that the train of fifty cars of stock must be cut in two. There is no 

 saving of time in the weighing of loaded cars as compared with empties; 

 in fact, the empties are spotted more easily. The amount of slack is 

 the same, but the engine can not .control loads as well as empties. The 

 point I want to bring out, however, is that weighing twenty-five cars, 

 one at a time, means twenty-five bumps or jerks to a car of cattle, and 

 I believe you will agree with me that twenty-five bumps do not in any 

 way lessen the amount of shrink in the animals. 



Men who weigh cars every day acquire more skill and speed in the 

 operation, but my personal experience has been that I could not weigh 

 more rapidly than one car in two minutes, and obtain correct weights. 

 In fact, I never found a crew that could spot cars faster than one in two 

 minutes. Under favorable conditions, then, the weighing of twenty-five 

 cars would consume fifty minutes before the stock could be delivered 

 to the transfer track. To this should be added the time necessary to 

 make the trip from the railroad scales to the transfer track. It must 

 be understood that the above time for weighing does not apply to the 

 automatic scales at Chicago, previously referred to. The latter, of course, 

 are much more rapid. 



Delays and bumps, jvhich are two important factors, having a direct 

 bearing on shrink, have therefore been eliminated under the method 

 now in use in South Omaha. As regards the delay, it is estimated that 

 on the average an hour and a half in time has been saved the shipper 

 in getting his stock unloaded; while as to the bumping, it would be 

 indeed difficult to form any estimate of the saving to the shipper by rea- 

 son of his stock being unloaded soon after arrival, so tftiey will not have 

 to endure the jolting necessary to weighing each car on track scales. 



Another advantage which appears worthy of consideration consists 

 in the fact that the hoof weights are recorded with a balanced beam 

 that takes into account amounts under 100 pounds. Furthermore, the 

 shipper has an opportunity of seeing his animals weighed if he desires. 



