PROGRESSIVE BEEF CATTLE RAISING 



returns them to the transfer tracks and receives its return 

 by payment of so much per car. The stock yards com- 

 pany receives the cattle from the railroad at the unloading 

 chute, counts them, and delivers them to the commission 

 firm at their pens. This company does all the weighing, 

 counts the shipments in the cars and records the entire 

 transaction from unloading to selling. For this, it 

 receives a yardage fee. It also furnishes the feed to the 

 shipper for which he must pay. The commission firm 

 acts as the selling agent for the shipper. It rents blocks 

 of pens from the yard company and engages in selling 

 or buying the cattle of the shipper. In order to do this, 

 the commission men must know accurately, both cattle 

 and the market, and follow the changes from day to day. 

 Practically no shippers are frequent enough visitors to 

 the market to be able to place as accurate a value on 

 their property as the commission salesman. The com- 

 mission firm is the final link in the establishment of a cash 

 market since it provides credit for each individual shipper, 

 who is probably unknown to the stockyards company and 

 prepares for him the bill of sale, deducts charges and 

 prepares the check for the shipper often before he has 

 received his own money from the buyer. 



Cattle bought by Armour and Com- 

 Slaughtering pany for slaughter are driven across 

 Cattle to their holding pens. From here they 



are driven up a long chute or incline 

 to the killing beds on the top floor of the plant. Here 

 they pass into a long line of knocking pens, two to each 

 pen, and are there dispatched with a heavy blow of the 

 sledge. They are then hoisted by the hind legs for 

 sticking, the blood being caught in buckets for use in 

 further manufacture of byproducts, feed and fertilizer. 

 The heads are skinned out, washed and prepared for the 

 Government inspector. The carcass of each individual 

 animal holds its place in rotation throughout the entire 



Page Seventy-four 



