Types and Market Classes of Live Stock 



125 



and fatness. They show a high development of flesh in loin, back, 

 thighs, twist, and rump, are very broad and deep, and are free from 

 paunchiness. The head is medium-sized and clean-cut. The bone is 

 clean and fine, the skin pliable and medium thick, and the outlines are 

 smooth and well rounded. The flesh is abundant in all parts, and is 

 firm, yet mellow and springy to the touch. There are no rolls or 

 patches of fat, but a smooth, even, deep, firm fleshing everywhere. 

 Very few steers come to market which grade as prime. On the Chicago 

 market at the conclusion of the International Live Stock Exposition, 

 which is held at the Union Stock Yards in December, most of the fat 

 steers are sold, and these are usually prime, but it requires much 

 searching to locate cattle of this grade at other periods of the year. 



Fig. '.j'-j. -Good beef steers. 



Choice steers.-^If a steer is not quite right in quality or condition, 

 but still possesses to a marked degree the characteristics most sought 

 by packers and shippers, he is called a choice steer. 



someone remarked recently, 'It may take a generation or two before it can be put 

 over.' " 



It may be argued that if "sub-class" is a term entirely correct so far as meaning 

 is concerned in its application to class divisions, then it may be best to promote rather 

 than to discourage its use, in the expectation that it may eventually come into use 

 on the markets. After consideration of this point, the writer decided that Daven- 

 port's viewpoint is the better one. He states that students who have studied market 

 classifications, coming to the yards, talk about sub-classes, and stock-yards men 

 immediately size them up as having theoretical knowledge only. If the term "sub- 

 class" can be omitted from outlines and descriptions of market classifications without 

 seriously affecting their clearness, it is best to do so. That idea has been followed 

 in the present edition of this book. 



