276 RURAL MICHIGAN 



Detroit Packing Company, in the process of being 

 established in the -winter of 1921, has a reported 

 capacity of some 1^000 hogs, 150 cattle and several 

 hundred head of sheep^ lambs and calves daily. In 

 justification for Detroit's position as a packing 

 center, this concern points to statistics which indicate 

 that out of 2,500,000 cattle, 8I/3 per cent were 

 shipped to Detroit, while the Detroit packers are 

 reputed to have slaughtered 72,000 more head than 

 were received at the local stockyards. It is believed 

 that uneconomical cross-hauls are revealed by these 

 figures and the fact that only 26 per cent of Michi- 

 gan-grown hogs reached Detroit, while Detroit 

 packers imported into the State 62^/2 per cent of 

 their live hogs. It is proposed to develop the local 

 market for the State's live-stock resources. 



On March 20 and 21, 1919, the representatives of 

 some seventy-five live-stock shipping associations met 

 at the Michigan Agricultural College for the pur- 

 pose of establishing an organization under the title 

 of "Michigan Livestock Exchange." The board of 

 directors there chosen represented Grand Traverse, 

 Cheboygan, Mecosta, Shiawassee, St. Joseph, Lena- 

 wee, and Genesee counties. The organization, it 

 was determined, should be financed by a membership 

 fee of ten dollars for each local association and a 

 charge of fifty cents a car for each carload of live- 

 stock shipped by local societies. Cooperation with 

 other associations and exchanges was contemplated 

 in the by-laws. Eegarding the live-stock industry of 

 Michigan, it was the declared purpose of the Michi- 



