362 EEPOBT OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



The "stable" cars are also furnished with, hay racks and water- 

 troughs- -the former filled at the point of embarkation and the latter 

 replenished at regular watering stations on the route. Each stable 

 car will hold from 18 to 20 steers of the best grade. One company 

 has fourtyoii hundred stable cars running on western roads, bring- 

 ing live-stock to market in Chicago. 



STOCK-YARDS AND PACKING-HOUSES OF CHICAGO. 



The center of the meat-packing industry of the United States is 

 Chicago. It is by far the largest shipping point for dressed beef and 

 canned meats, and it also maintains a decided lead in the handling 

 of hog products. The course of business in Cincinnati and St. Louis 

 is similar to that in Chicago. Extensive packing-houses at Omaha 

 (Nebraska), Kansas City (Missouri), and other points, are largely 

 controlled by Chicago capital, and the method of business there pur- 

 sued is substantially the same. The operations of the stock-yard and 

 packing-houses of Chicago have therefore been selected for descrip- 

 tion as Illustrative of the meat industries of the United States. 



The plant of the Union Stock Yard and Transit Company, of Chi- 

 cago, covers 350 acres in the town of Lake, 4 miles from Chicago 

 city. The establishments of the meat-packers, adjoining and con- 

 nected with the stock-yard, but forming a separate jurisdiction, 

 known as " Packing Town," cover a like area, so that, in all, 700 acres 

 of railroad tracks, pens, and buildings are devoted to the purposes 

 of transporting, handling, and slaughtering animals, and packing 

 meats. 



The stock-yard has a capacity to accommodate at one time 25,000 

 cattle and 100,000 hogs. Practically the largest receipts in any one 

 day have been 20,000 cattle and 66,000 hogs. The total receipts in the 

 year 1888 were 2,611,543 cattle and 4,921,712 hogs. In addition to 

 these, and outside the scope of this article, the yard has a capacity 

 for receiving and handling a large number of sheep, and actually 

 received over 1,500,000 in 1888. Twenty different lines of railroad 

 concentrate in the yard, connecting with all points north, south, 

 east, and west. The Stock Yard Company owns and maintains a 

 double track, embracing 150 miles of main track, running all round 

 the city, and connecting with every line that enters Chicago. It has 

 its own water service and fire department- it provides a three-hun- 

 dred room hotel, and a bank with a capital of $750,000; and during 

 the year 1888, with low prices prevailing, its business aggregated 

 $250,000,000. 



At night the yard is lighted by electricity and securely policed. 

 Cattle begin to arrive each day (Sundays excepted) between 7 and 8 

 o'clock. From that hour until 4 or 5 in the afternoon there is one 

 continuous rush of business. Drovers, mounted on bronchos or hardy 

 Montana horses or piebald Texas ponies, ride rapidly in every di- 

 rection, cutting out stray cattle here, heading oft' a herd which is 

 moving in a wrong direction there, and almost drowning with their 

 shouts the bellowing of the cattle. Their high-backed saddles, with 

 the ready lariat slung to the pommel, their quaint leather stirrups 

 and high boots, into which the pantaloons are always tucked, give 

 them a sufficiently picturesque appearance, even though the tra- 

 ditional cowboy's slouch hat has been discarded for cloth or fur 

 caps, which, pulled clown closely over the ears, are better adapted for 

 Chicago winter weather. Buyers sorting and re-sorting cattle and 



