210 TYPES AND MARKET CLASSES OF LIVE STOCK 



and finish. Long shanks, coarse, dark flesh, long necks, and 

 thin caul, however, render them quite easily distinguished 

 from sheep carcasses. 



The Value of the Pelt. 



The market value of a mutton animal rests not only upon 

 the carcass it yields, but also upon the pelt. Information has 

 been given out from various sources that buyers of sheep for 

 the packers prefer animals wearing light pelts. It has been 

 said that the slaughtering departments of packing houses with- 

 out exception dispose of sheep pelts at a fixed price per pelt, 

 consigning them to the wool-pullery department of their own 

 plant, or to some independent pullery. Buyers have been re- 

 ported to prefer light-wooled lots in order to obtain high dress- 

 ing percentages; it has been said that buyers have no particular 

 interest in the welfare of their own pulleries, or in other firms 

 that buy the pelts for pulling. Farmers have been advised 

 that the highest market price is obtained for sheep and lambs 

 that are light in pelt and which consequently dress high. 



Can it be possible that the packer, with all his genius for 

 the utilization of by-products, is overlooking such an important 

 item as wool? If the shank bones of cattle may be profitably 

 converted into buttons and other articles, is it not inconsistent 

 and unbusiness like to discount well-wooled lots of sheep? With 

 wool worth 25 to 50 cents per pound, is it not strange that the 

 buyer should refuse to bid higher on a well-wooled band of 

 sheep than upon a lot with light fleeces, other things being 

 equal, especially as the fleece is secured at the live-weight price 

 of the animal, namely 10 to 20 cents per pound? In handling 

 thousands of sheep, the wool reaches a considerable valuation. 

 If light pelts are wanted, why do shorn sheep sell at a discount? 



Such questions as these led the writer to make an investi- 

 gation which included interviews with the principal buyers 

 at Chicago, and an inspection of a modern wool-pulling estab- 

 lishment owned by one of the packing firms. It was found 

 that a few buyers do give preference to light-pelted lots, but 

 that class of buyers is decidedly in the minority. Swift, Ar- 

 mour, Wilson, and New York butchers have for some time 

 realized the added value of a heavy fleece, and this has enabled 

 them, in many instances, to outbid competing firms who con- 

 sider only the dressing percentage as an index of the value of 



