144 American Cattle Markets and the Dressed Bepf Trade. 
we copy from a description prepared by one of the packers for 
publication : — 
Lifting-pulleys worked hy steam-power are provided for hoisting each 
carcass while being dressed, and iron runs for moving the carcasses in halves 
or quarters from the hanging-room to the chill-rooms. All the work in the 
slaughtering department is done by well-trained experts, each one having a 
single division of labour to perform. For example : the hides are taken off 
the carcass by different trained experts in such careful manner as to give 
them a value of about Ic. per pound over the common butcher's hides ; the 
guts are thoroughly cleansed and sold for sausage casings ; the contents of 
the entrails are converted into fertilising substances, which are sold in the 
older portions of the country where the lands have been long worn by suc- 
cessive crops ; the livers, hearts, &c., are shipped with the beef to different 
markets, where they are sold to good advantage : the bladders are dried and 
sold to druggists and other parties ; the stomach makes tripe ; the tongues 
are always in demand at good prices ; the horns are sold readily to the comb 
and knife-haft maker ; the shin-bones are usually in good request for knife- 
handles, and backs for tooth and nail brushes ; the knuckle-bones are similarly 
prepared for maldng acid phosphate, and have a fair commercial value for 
this purpose ; the blood is all utilised for different commercial purposes ; the 
ox-tail trade is now a regular part of the traffic, as all the great hotels must 
have ox-tail soup at stated times ; the heads, after being trimmed, are sold 
for glue stock ; the fat taken from the inside of the bullock is made by a 
peculiar process into oleomargarine, which has to be sold under its proper 
name, and sells to fair advantage ; neatsfoot oil is made from the feet, and 
the hoofs are ground and go in with the fertilising substances, so that every 
part of the bullock is utilised. 
The processes of dressing and cleaning the carcasses are pic- 
torially described in the illustrations, Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, on pages 
146 and 147. 
From the main slaughtering-house, which to a stranger is a 
sickening sight, the carcasses are taken along the iron run-ways 
into the refrigerators (see illustration, Fig. 4, on page 148). 
There they cool off in a temperature of about 36° Falir. Passing 
from the blood-stained floors of the butchering department to 
the other portions of the house, every one is struck with the re- 
markable cleanliness of the establishment. There is not a speck 
of dirt. To this point the greatest attention is paid, and the 
meat and other products from these houses are handled with far 
more care than in the small slaughtering-houses in the country. 
From the coolers the carcasses are run out to the loading 
platforms, cut into quarters, and then put in refrigerator cars, 
which take the meat away and distribute it far and near. 
A trip through the big slaughtering-houses is very interest- 
ing. The wonderful dexterity of the butchers, the mechanical 
inventions to help the work, the methodical system employed, 
the extreme cleanliness, and above all the rapidity and silence 
with which everything is done, strike a stranger very forcibly, 
and an impartial person who visits those great meat manufactories 
