MARKETING 225 



and live stock dealers holding the greater part of the 

 stock. These stockyards are usually located out some 

 distance from the city on account of cheaper land and 

 better location for the packing plants that are nearly al- 

 ways associated with the yards. The yards are usually 

 laid out after the manner of a town site, with the various 

 yards representing the blocks, and the driveways and 

 alleys representing the streets. Packing plants and other 

 buildings are generally near. Railway tracks usually 

 run along the side of and through the yards. A central 

 exchange building known as the live stock exchange is 

 always present in the larger yards. The live stock ex- 

 change is really an organization of the buyers and sellers 

 and dealers that do business in the yards. Their pur- 

 pose is to control and regulate trading. Either the stock 

 exchange or the stockyards company prescribes all the 

 rules under which stock enter the yards. They have fixed 

 charges on the use of the yards, commissions, costs of 

 feeds, switching charges, insurance, etc. The stockyard 

 companies handle the stock after it reaches the yards 

 and they do all of the weighing which the buyer pays 

 for at a fixed rate per head. The dealers in the yards 

 are usually divided into two classes — the buyers and 

 sellers. The sellers are generally commission men. 

 Methods of settlement vary somewhat, but they are 

 usually on a cash basis and are made through local 

 banks. 



Market costs. — When one has a car of hogs to be 

 shipped, if he is the business man he should be, he will 

 figure up all the attendant costs and figure the price his 

 hogs should bring him. Fortunately, most of the costs 

 incidental to marketing are fixed and are pretty well 



