In 1875 Philip D. Armour erected in Chicago the first really 

 large-scale chill room in the world, although small ice boxes, and 

 even a crude type of refrigerator cars, had previously been used by 

 others. 



Previous to 1880 Mr. Armour, who was also responsible for the 

 actual building and operation of the first whole line of refrigerator 

 cars, killed no sheep in his several packing plants. Pork was the 

 ideal packing meat, as it still is; and fresh meats had not yet become 

 a commodity on the market. In fact, packing houses were operated 

 only during the winter months, and no meats at all were packed in 

 summer until after large-scale refrigerative control had been estab- 

 lished. 



Thn MiiU Beef pickled, smoked and dried followed 



i? i * rT P rk ? s a commodity on the market. The 

 Market Devel- world's appetite for fresh meats was satisfied 

 Oped Last - on ly insofar as home slaughter and the local 

 butcher could satisfy it. But mutton, being 



strictly a fresh meat product, and not lending itself to pickling, 

 smoking and drying, became a world commodity only after the 

 development of refrigerated transportation. 



In 1880 Mr. Armour began killing a few sheep in Chicago to 

 supply the local market. The large-scale slaughter and distribution 

 of sheep in the new world had to await not only the development of 

 a great line of refrigerator cars and scores of branch houses, but the 

 development of the public taste for mutton and a mutton type of 

 sheep to satisfy that growing taste. 



_ t The first Armour branch house was 



1 he Present erected i n New York City in 1 884. This was 



Armour Market immediately followed by one in Albany. By 

 1 8qo there were forty branches, and this num- 

 ber had doubled before 1 894. 



Today the market through which Armour disposes of the 

 vast number of high-grade lambs and sheep purchased annually 

 for cash from the American farmer consists of more than four hun- 

 dred branch houses in this country alone. Several thousand 

 refrigerator cars are constantly in operation between the twenty 

 Armour packing plants and these hundreds of branch houses. 



A great system of side industries has been developed to utilize 

 all of the by-products, in the manufacture and sale of such articles 

 as glue, glycerine, violin strings, pepsin and fertilizer, which enables 

 us to pay the sheep raiser a maximum price for his live animals. 



