Types and Market Classes of Live Stock 85 



tions of the city. The first was the old Bull's Head Stock Yards, 

 opened in 1848. In 1865, John B. Sherman organized the Union Stock 

 Yard and Transit Company, which purchased 320 acres at 39th and 

 Halsted streets and opened the present Union Stock Yards, thus laying 

 the basis for a greater live-stock trade at Chicago. In 1876 the 

 market could accommodate at one time 20,000 cattle, 100,000 hogs, 

 15,000 sheep, and 1,000 horses— in all, 136,000 animals. The Kansas 

 City Stock Yards was opened in 1871, the National Stock Yards, 

 located in Illinois, but known as the St. Louis market, was opened in 

 1872, and the Omaha Stock Yards was established in 1884. ^ 



The Union Stock Yards today.— The Union Stock Yard and 

 Transit Company receives, unloads, counts, yards, feeds, waters, 

 weighs, and delivers or reships live stock, but neither buys, sells, nor 

 slaughters animals. It is a great transportation and marketing cor- 

 poration, which connects all of the 26 railway 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. Stock yard companies derive their revenue from pen 

 rentals, charges for feed, and rental of office space. 



The Chicago yards now occupy an area of 500 acres, 450 of which 

 are paved. 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. Since 1900, a yearly aver- 

 age of more than 15 million animals have found a cash market at 

 Chicago. Since 1865, over 128 million cattle, 12 million calves, 360 

 million hogs, 150 million sheep, and 3 million horses and mules have 

 been handled, making a grand total of over 656 million animals, the 

 value of which was nearly 15 billion dollars. The business sometimes 

 amounts to $5,000,000 in a day, and averages well over $1,500,000 for 

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

 stock are received on Monday or Wednesday, the largest market days. 

 Prices established on this leading market form the basis of values for 

 live stock at other markets and throughout the country. 



Essential factors in a large market.— Arthur C. Davenport, 

 manager of the Chicago Daily Drovers Journal, states ^ that the more 

 essential interests which promote and make possible the development 

 of large live-stock markets are transportation companies, stock yards 



1 Arthur C. Davenport: The American Live Stock Market— How It Functions, 

 1922, p. 16. 



«Ibid, p. 19. 



