CHAPTER II. 

 THE BEEF CARCASS. 



Buyers of fat cattle at the large market centers make their 

 bids according to their estimates of the kind of carcasses the 

 animals will yield. These estimates are made with considerable 

 accuracy because the buyers have made a study of carcasses 

 and the cuts which they yield. A similar knowledge of meats 

 is essential to the beef producer in order that he may learn to 

 judge and value beef cattle correctly. 



Fig. 6. Knocking Cattle. 



Slaughtering. Upon reaching the packing house, the cat- 

 tle are driven into knocking pens where they are dealt a sledge- 

 hammer blow by the "knocker" who stands on a platform about 

 even with the head of the animal. They are then rolled on the 

 dressing floor, where a shackle is placed about the hind leg. The 

 carcass is raised and bled, and the head removed. Again floored, 

 the feet are removed at knees and hocks, and the hide is stripped. 

 The carcass is then placed on a spreader, known as a "beef tree/' 

 where it 'is disemboweled, the hide removed entirely, and the 

 back split. An endless chain then conveys the sides of beef 

 through a set of washers to the coolers. The time required for 



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