TJie American Cattle Trade. 
:;<;i 
equally good, and, being submitted to a pretty severe epicurean 
test, was pronounced unsurpassed. 
With these remarks upon the general subject, let me turn more 
to the details of production, the transportation, the markets and 
tin- exportation of American beef and beef-cattle. 
Enough has already been said on the subject of production to 
show that there is little profit in raising beef on the Atlantic 
slope, and its production there in great quantity is impracticable ; 
that in the Prairie country, east of the Missouri river, there are 
opportunities for profitably fattening more animals than can be 
bred ; and that in the Plains region, beyond the Mississippi and 
Missouri, cattle can be reared until two or three years old (of 
Spanish blood, until four years old), cheaper than anywhere 
else. 
Still keeping in mind the three regions thus described, a little 
explanation as to transportation may be useful. In the East 
there are so many country meat markets, and the demand so far 
exceeds the supply, that beeves are generally sold and butchered 
within a few miles of the place where fattened. The choicest 
steers only, such as command extra prices, are taken to the 
cities ; they go by rail, at low freight rates, and the distances 
being so short, they are delivered without deterioration in 
weight or quality ; they are usually accompanied by the farmer 
or some local speculator, and disposed of to the city butchers at 
little expense for commission and handling. But five millions 
of people in the cities and large towns of the East must receive 
four-fifths or more of their meat by car transportation, from the 
grass and grain farms over 1000 miles to the West. Even the 
smaller towns depend mainly upon Western supplies : — a country 
butcher in a manufacturing village of 3000 inhabitants in 
Massachusetts, nearer to the farms of Vermont than the Albany 
cattle-yards, informs me that during the past two years, not over 
one-fourth of the beeves he has handled have been fattened in 
New England, and less than half of those were bred East of the 
Hudson. 
In the Central region the interest centres at Chicago. 
There is situated the greatest live-stock market in the world, 
receiving and distributing Western stackers, and receiving 
and forwarding beef-cattle, besides the trade connected with 
home consumption and the great meat-packing establishments. 
Nearly all the business there is carried on at one place, 
the Union Stock Yards, covering 400 acres, and built in 
1865 with a capital of one million dollars. This establish- 
ment handled during 1875 over 900,000 neat cattle, 400,000 
sheep, and 4,000,000 swine ; the total value of this stock being 
estimated at 23 millions sterling. The cattle of this region, 
2 c 2 
