334 EEPOKT OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



orate and the best designed for the transportation of valuable stock, 

 but some of the Burton cars labor under the disadvantage that the 

 partitions separating their cars . into compartments are permanent, 

 interfering to some extent with the use of the car for return freights. 

 The following statistics and information concerning early live 

 stock shipments in the Burton car are authentic and reliable: 



KANSAS CITY, Mo., November 2, 1887. 

 Col. H. M. TAYLOR, 



Chairman Committee of Transportation, 



Cattle-Growers' Convention, Kansas City, Mo.: 



SIR: Replying to your inquiry concerning actual tests of saving in shrinkage and 

 gain in time by transporting range cattle in the Burton feeding and watering cars, 

 I will say that careful and accurate tests show a gain of 40 per cent, in time and 

 transit, and actual saving in shrinkage of from 50 to 135 pounds per animal (accord- 

 ing to distance shipped), over the old system of common stock cars and feed yards. 

 Will note one instance as an example. In August, 1886, we brought'wild range cat- 

 tle in sixteen Burton cars, from Winslow, Ariz., to Kansas City, a distance of 1,204 

 miles. These cattle were weighed on live-stock scales at Winslow, and averaged 

 935 pounds each. They weighed 882 pounds each at Kansas City, shrinking only 

 53 pounds per head. They were off fresh grass. 



The running time was about seventy-two hours. The cattle consumed 6.600 

 pounds of hay and were watered in the cars twice each twenty-four hours, drinking 

 freely each time. The steers rode very nicely, as many as fourteen steers lying down 

 in a car at one time, chewing their cuds. They arrived at Kansas City without an. 

 injured or lame animal. 



In December, 1886, a test was made of shipment in common cars to Kansas City, 

 a distance of 1,196 miles. The cattle were unloaded and reloaded at feeding yards 

 en route; were five days (120 hours) in transit, and shrunk 188 pounds per head. 

 This actual test, carefully conducted between the common stock-car system, and 

 the Burton cars, shows a saving of 135 pounds per head in favor of the improved 

 stock-car transportation. This 135 pounds, at $3 per cwt. , equals a gain of $4.05 

 per head, or $81 per car (on twenty head to a car) in the matter of shrinkage alone. 

 But the gain does not end there. The improved cars preserve the condition of the 

 animals to such an extent that the cattle readily sell from 20 to 35 cents per hundred 

 more on the entire carcass than similar animals on same market that have been 

 transported the same distances in the common stock cars. For evidence, attest pa- 

 pers attached from shippers and commission men. 



As to expense to railway company in handling the improved stock cars, we have 

 affidavits from train service showing that full trains of Burton cars, loaded, have 

 been, pulled over the continental divide with less expenditure of motive power 

 than trains of common stock cars of same length. 



All of which is very respectfully submitted by the Burton Stock Car Company, 



ERSKINE R. MERRELL, 



General Agent. 



KANSAS CITY, Mo., May 3, 1887. 

 Mr. ERSKINE R. MERRELL, 



General Agent Burton Stock Car Company, Kansas City, Mo.: 

 SIR : Having sold seven loads of the cattle for Mr. James A. Alcock, which were 

 transported from Engle, N. Mex. , in the Burton stock cars, we were much pleased 

 with your improved system of transportation, which gains so much time and saves 

 so much shrinkage over the common stock cars and feed-yard system. These cattle 

 reached Kansas City at 10 a. m., Monday, May 2, and we sold them before 3 p. m., 

 same day, at $3.80 per hundred, which was freely admitted to be 20 cents per hun- 

 dred higher than similar cattle on same market that were transported a like distance 

 in common stock cars. In our fourteen years' experience on these yards we never 

 saw range cattle delivered here in such fine condition. Several buyers said they 

 would give 10 to 20 cents per hundred more for cattle transported in the Burton 

 stock cars than for similar cattle arriving in common stock cars which had been 

 unloaded and reloaded at feed yards, and had been twice as long in transit. 



Respectfully, 



WHITE & RIAL, 



