84 Western Live-stock Management 
being sold, but in spite of this they will lack considerable 
of weighing as much as at home. A steer which weighs 
1200 pounds when just out of the feed-lot and full of feed 
and water would be shrunk 4 per cent when sold to be 
shipped, which would make the shipper pay for 1152 
pounds. After the steer has been on the train twenty- 
four hours and has been unloaded and filled with feed 
and water, he will not weigh over 1125 and perhaps only 
1100. After a long shipment of five or six days, he will 
probably weigh between 1050 and 1100, probably about 
1075. Inshipping, from twenty to thirty steers are placed 
in the car, the average being twenty-five. There should 
be room enough so that if one lies down he can get up 
again. Eastbound rates are for 24,000 pounds in a car, 
whether you have that much in or not, and this means 
twenty 1200-pound steers, which will about fill an ordinary 
car. Westbound freight rates, however, are quoted at 
so much for each 364-foot car, regardless of the number 
in the car. In this case, the shipper, to save expense, 
loads heavier than he otherwise would. If possible, one 
should secure a car with good racks and fill the racks well 
with hay; and one also should be sure the cars are well 
sanded. The watering troughs found on most cars are 
out of order and utterly useless. 
According to the ruling of the Secretary of Agriculture, 
cattle in interstate shipments cannot be kept on the train 
longer than twenty-eight hours without unloading and 
feeding, except on written request, when they may remain 
thirty-six hours. The feeding en route is done at regular 
feeding stations which cater to this trade and which supply 
the necessary feed and water at a stated price. The rail- 
roads pay for this feed en route but collect from the shipper 
when the cattle are unloaded. There are feed vars at 
