The American Cattle Trade. 
kind, of better form and beef-quality than the ordinary run of 
the old Spanish Longhorns (perhaps sired by a grade Durham), 
and weighing 1000 lbs. Starting in March as one of a large 
herd, with good grass springing up all along the path, this 
animal may reach the railroad at Wichita, Kansas, during the 
month of May, weighing 1050 lbs. or more. Allowing 12*. 
to cover the cost of the drive and all expenses, including a 
probable change of ownership, the value of the animal on 
leaving the Kansas shipping station will be four guineas. 
Thirty-two shillings more will place it in the Chicago yards, 
weighing not much less than at its start, or, making generous 
allowance, let us say 960 lbs., and that sum will also cover the 
expenses of sale there. He will be rated as a "stocker" now, 
and sold for l\d. per lb. gross, or thereabouts, bringing 6/. 16s. 
to 7/., or a profit of 20 per cent, at this point. Let him be sold 
at Chicago for 11., and taken to an Illinois pasture or corn- 
crib ; he will return to market in the autumn, tatted mainly on 
grass, weighing 1150 lbs., and will sell for 10/. — a handsome 
profit on the operation, especially when, as is often done in that 
State, from 100 to 1000 head of cattle are handled together in 
this way. Or let him rather be taken from Chicago, June 1st, 
at 11., and returned the following winter at 1275 lbs., and sold 
then at about 2^d. per lb. gross, bringing 12/. 16s. We will 
call 21. 16s. of this increased value the profits of fattening, 
being over 25 per cent, on what the animal cost its seller. Our 
bullock may now be taken to New York for 24s., and reach 
that city within a year after leaving Texas, weighing rather 
over 1200 lbs., and costing its owner then, as above, 14/. Sold 
now on the New York system, at 5^d. per lb., reckoned 56 
per cent, dressed beef, there will be a profit of 16s. to 20s. on 
the animal as it passes to the abattoir. The profits of slaughter- 
ing and wholesaling the beef are well known. The butcher, 
who buys the live animal at about 15/., reckoned at bhd. per lb. 
dressed weight, can well afford to sell the carcass to the whole- 
sale dealer at 5d. per lb., for the hide, tallow and offal will pay 
all the expenses of handling and dressing in New York, and 
yield large gains besides. And there is still room for the 
jobber to make handsome profits before the beef is cut up and 
retailed. 
The retail prices obtained for meats have little influence upon 
the business, and need not enter into a general consideration of this 
subject. The dealers in our local markets, as a recent writer has 
remarked, " seem to have a grip on their customers, and squeeze 
them persistently, unmercifully, and unreasonably, especially in 
our Eastern cities." The retail meat-markets maintain no proper 
relation in prices to the wholesale ; witness the fact that while 
