388 Journal of Agriculture, Victoria. \ 10 July, 1918. 



You might be interested to know that, at the Longmont factory, the 

 average output of products per ton of topped beets (2,000 lbs.) was 

 as follows : — 



260 lbs. granulated sugar. 

 100 lbs. dried pulp. 

 35 lbs. molasses (dry matter). 



395 lbs. 



The beet has 22 per cent, of dry matter, or 440 lbs. per short ton. 

 They now propose to recover potash from the balance. The company 

 has been extremely successful in producing sugar-beet seed, and now 

 has a two years' supply on hand. It not only has produced seed as 

 good as the best German " K.W. " seed, but actually has strains which 

 give a yield, compared with standard German seed, of 114.9 (German 

 100), and a sugar yield of 113 per cent. I was fortunate enough to 

 secure minute details of the processes of selection involved, as well as 

 numerous photographs of the laboratories and apparatus used in selec- 

 tion of the seed. 



I made some inquiries into the methods of handling stock at Kansas 

 City and Chicago. Through a letter of introduction to Mr. Harold 

 Swift, of Swift and Company, the great Chicago meat packers, I was 

 able to spend two days in looking over their 20-acre plant at Chicago. 

 1 saw the hog, cattle, and sheep plant, and witnessed every operation, 

 from the time the animals are slaughtered until the carcasses are 

 shipped. The plant is immense. The day I visited the works, 7,000 

 sheep, 2,500 cattle, and 6,000 hogs were slaughtered and packed in nine 

 hours. The stock is sold by live weight, and immediately the sales are 

 made the animals are run over the weighbridge. !No auctions are held, 

 as in Australia. Commission agents, and the buyers from the packing 

 houses, ride around the pens and haggle until a sale is made. 



Swift and Company had a turnover of $875,000,000 last year. 

 According to the chairman's report, the expenses of operating may be 

 thus summarized : — 



Average price paid for cattle . . . . . . $84.45 



Packing house and selling expenses . . . . . . 7.32 



Net profit . . . . . . . . . . 1.29 



Average total proceeds from carcasses and by- 

 products . . . . . . . . $93.06 



These proceeds were divided as follows : — 



Average amount per head received for beef carcasses . . $68.97 

 Average amount per head received for by-products . . 24.09 



$93.06 



Thus, it will be seen that the company sold beef carcasses for less than 

 it paid for the live animals, and that the total net profit was $1.29 

 per head. 



