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:tor 



If close proximity to the regions where most of the sheep are 

 produced were the only factor in determining the best location for 

 a market, the largest markets would be still farther west than they 

 are, because nearly seventy-five percent of the sheep in the United 

 States are west of the Mississippi river and fifty-seven percent are 

 in the Rocky Mountain region and west to the Pacific Coast. 



Shipping facilities for getting the output of the packing hous 

 to the consumer have an important bearing. Still another factc 

 which has a great deal of influence is the fact that many sheep from 

 the west are fattened in the Mississippi and Missouri valleys. Many 

 of these are handled twice by the markets, first as feeders, and 

 again as sheep intended for slaughter. When sold as feeders, they 

 go only a comparatively short distance from the market and this 

 is a factor that equalizes the seeming disparity of the markets being 

 too far removed from the regions of heaviest production, and 

 really makes such places as Chicago and Omaha the actual centers 

 of the sheep trade. 



The great central sheep markets of today have enjoyed a very 

 large growth during the last twenty years. The total number ol 

 sheep received at Chicago in 1887 was 1,360,862; in 1907, 4,218,- 

 115. This grow 7 th is largely traceable to the turning of the sheep 

 husbandry interests in the west from wool production, as a primary 

 object, to the production of both mutton and wool, and to the rise 

 of the sheep feeding industry. By liberal infusions of mutton blood 

 into their flocks, and by marketing their sheep at a younger age 

 than formerly, western flockmasters supplanted a dry, ill-flavored 

 mutton with a wholesome product that met with ready demand. 

 Almost at the same time sheep feeding became popular, and these 3 

 better bred sheep of the range were also better fed. A further im- 

 petus was thus given to mutton consumption which has now reached 

 the point, in many of our cities at least, where the only check to 

 liberal consumption is the lack of the ability to buy. 



With this increased activity in the production of better mutton 

 in the west and in feed lot operations, the large markets have not 

 only increased in volume of business but they have also improved 

 in their organization, as may be seen in the review of conditions 

 past and present at the Chicago market. Formerly sheep on this 

 market were not classed and graded, but they were sold in mixed 

 bands just as they were unloaded from the cars. Often these mixed 

 shipments were made up of all ages and sexes, in every degree 

 of quality and condition. The volume of the business was small; 

 mutton was not much sought after and hence the need of careful 



