The American Cattle Tra /e. 
365 
steady growth of the market, and the marked change in the 
sources of supply, are the most striking features of the figures 
above given, especially showing the increasing movement of 
cattle Eastward. The great proportion of the receipts at New 
York credited to the State of Illinois, simply means that they 
are forwarded from the Chicago market, and thus invites atten- 
tion to that point. 
At Chicago the cattle sold in 1855 numbered but 10,000 ; in 
I860, 156,000; 1862, 209,000; not yet equalling the New 
York market. But in 1865, 333,000 cattle were received, and 
from that time Chicago has led, and the growth has been very 
rapid. In 1870 the receipts were 533,000 ; in 1875, 920,000; 
and last year a round 1,000,000. As this is mainly a dis- 
tributing market, three-fourths of all cattle received being re- 
shipped alive, all sales are by gross live-weight, and are made, 
as a rule, at the Union Stockyards by brokers whose regular 
commission is 2s. a- head. The prices correspond naturally 
to those of New York, with due allowance for transportation, 
shrinkage, and profits, so they need not be given here. The 
greater range in the prices at Chicago — as, for example, last year 
from Id. to 3^d. per lb. — is accounted for by the fact previously 
mentioned, that it covers not only transactions in the best 
beef, all ready for the shambles, but thousands of " stockers " 
which are sold to be kept on the prairie pastures and among 
the cornfields of Illinois and neighbouring States for from six 
months to a year, or more, before being forwarded to Eastern 
markets. The same animals in large numbers thus pass through 
the Chicago market twice. The sources of supply at this point 
present the same features as at New York. Up to 1865, the 
receipts were almost entirely from the great agricultural States, 
of which Chicago is the commercial centre. Texan cattle had 
begun to find their way to this market through Missouri in 
1859-60, but the war then interrupted this movement. In 1867, 
however, 37,000 Texans were reported as received at Chicago, 
and 55,000 in 1868 ; besides these there were other thousands, 
originally Texan stock, but fattened in intermediate States, and 
credited to them upon arrival. In 1870 the arrivals from the 
Far West began to be very large ; Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, 
Colorado, and Wyoming furnishing the greatest proportion 
of the total receipts, and this continues to be the case. 
In Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming territory, cattle 
are sold without weighing, and with but a general reference 
to their weight. They may be quoted as follows : — At the 
" ranches " in Texas, yearlings, 16s. ; two-year-olds, 24s. ; three- 
year-olds and cows, 36s. ; beef-cattle, 21. 8s. to 31. In Kansas, 
on the railroad, yearlings, 24s. ; two-year-olds, 32s. ; three- 
