78 TYPES AND MARKET CLASSES OF LIVE STOCK 



sells, nor slaughters animals. It is a great transportation and 

 marketing corporation, which connects all the twenty-six rail- 

 way systems entering Chicago with the Union Stock Yards, 

 and provides unloading platforms, chutes, pens, buildings, and 

 all necessary facilities for doing an immense daily business in 

 handling live animals, but takes no part in the transaction of 

 the market. The Chicago yards now occupy an area of 500 

 acres, 450 of which are paved. There are 25 miles of streets, 

 and 300 miles of railway tracks. The number of pens is 13,000, 

 of which 8,500 are double-decked and covered; there are 725 

 chutes, 25,000 gates, 25 miles of watering troughs, and 450 

 commission and other offices. The water system has a reser- 

 voir holding 10,000,000 gallons, and pumps with a daily capacity 

 of 8,000,000 gallons, of which 7,000,000 gallons are consumed 

 on hot days. Separate accommodations are provided for each 

 kind of stock; sheep and hogs are kept in sheds of two or more 

 stories each, and cattle occupy open pens holding from one to 

 several carloads. These yards would hold at one time 75,000 

 cattle, 125,000 sheep, 300,000 hogs, and 6,000 horses and mules. 

 It is estimated that 50,000 people earn a living at the stock yards 

 and the packing plants, and that 250,000 of Chicago's population 

 are more or less dependent on the live-stock industry. 



Since 1900, a yearly average of more than 15,000,000 ani- 

 mals have found a cash market at Chicago. Since 1865, 

 116,153,488 cattle, 9,832,996 calves, 328,293,317 hogs, 132,627,438 

 sheep, and 3,536,796 horses have been handled, making a grand to- 

 tal of 590,444,035 animals, the value of which was $12,498,228,223. 

 Sixty per cent, of the cattle received at Chicago are slaugh- 

 tered there, also 83 per cent, of the calves, 77 per cent, of the 

 hogs, and 74 per cent, of the sheep. The business often amounts 

 to $5,000,000 in a day, and averages well over $2,000,000 for 

 every business day of the year. Not infrequently 2,000 car- 

 loads of stock are received on Monday or Wednesday, the largest 

 market days. When unloaded, the stock is taken in charge by 

 some one of the many commission firms who sell to the packer, 

 shipper, speculator, or feeder, and remit the proceeds to the 

 consignor. Prices established on this leading market form the 

 basis of values for live stock at other markets and throughout 

 the country. 



Average carloads. Reports of stock yards and railroads 

 show that the average number of meat animals to the carload 

 is for cattle about 25, hogs in single-deck cars about 75, and 



