American Cattle MdrTcets and the Dressed Beef Trade, 133 
used by the home packers and slaughterers, and are included 
among the shipments. For this reason the receipts and ship- 
ments, of which details are given on page 134, are nearly equal. 
With Texas opening up year by year, we may expect vast 
developments in this market during the next few years, and 
while as a slaughtering point it may not equal Chicago, still its 
growth must be rapid from this time forth. The quality of the 
cattle will, however, fall far below that of those received at 
Chicago and Omaha. 
While a local market had existed for many years at Omaha, 
it was nob till 1884 that a Stock Yards Company was organised 
and a daily market fairly established. Since then it has made 
a steady growth, details of which are given on page 135. It 
commands a wide territory just opening up, and is destined to 
be an important point in the cattle trade of the West, although 
for past years it has served very much as a feeder to Chicago. 
Leaving statistics behind, let us now take up the principal 
points connected with our cattle markets. It would be impos- 
sible, of course, to treat in detail of the various markets of the 
United States ; Chicago being the centre of the live-stock trade, 
it will be better to deal exclusively with it. As mentioned 
previously, the Chicago Stock Yards were organised and opened 
in 1865. The Stock Yards Company at the present time own 
400 acres of land — 320 acres in one block, and 80 acres in out- 
lying lots. The larger tract is devoted to the Stock Yards ; 
some 200 acres being devoted to yards, &c., while the balance 
is occupied by railroad tracks and car sidings. Twenty great 
trunk railroads, fed by hundreds of branches which stretch like 
a mighty octopus over the land, deliver and carry away the raw 
and manufactured articles which arrive at and depart from this 
spot. During early morning the Western roads are busy un- 
loading their freight of cattle, hogs, and sheep ; while in the 
afternoon the Eastern roads are equally busy taking delivery and 
loading up the stock that is going to Boston, New York, and 
countless other points. At the packing-houses the woi'k goes 
on all day — one train following another carrying away the 
finished product of the butcher and packer. 
The Stock Yards Company own all the railroad tracks (over 
150 miles in all), and within the last year have done all the 
switching or shunting connected with the business of the Yards. 
Every railroad company has a direct communication with the 
Yards, either through its own tracks or by the Belt line ; at 
any rate, they can all get there without trouble, and no delays 
take place. The Yards can accommodate at their fullest capacity 
over 20,000 cattle, 120,000 hogs, and 15,000 sheep; and while 
