152 American Cattle MarJcets and the Dressed Beef Trade. 
go forward systematically, and tliey have to be prepared to sup- 
ply their customers. It is on this rock that various schemes to 
supply dressed beef from some outside points have split. 
As an example of this class of undertaking, we may instance 
the scheme started by the Marquis De Mores at Medora, Dakota. 
To the outsider it looked at first a plausible scheme. The inten- 
tion was to draw pn the ranch herds of Montana, kill the animals 
close to their grazing grounds, thus saving shrinkage, bruising, 
and railroad freights, and place the meat at a low figure in the 
East. The affair was badly managed and ended in disaster ; 
but even if it had been run by the most experienced man in 
America, the result would have eventually been the same. The 
supply of beef lasted only for four months in the year, the re- 
mainder of the season the plant was idle. The meat was all of 
one class, no regular customers could be held, and the business 
gathered up, say, in four months' time was scattered to the winds 
when the supplies stopped. Labour was high and uncei'tain, and, 
lastly, the otfal could not be used to advantage. The failure of 
this and similar schemes proves most conclusively that a dressed 
beef concern, to be successful, must be located at a central point, 
where it can draw a daily supply of all classes of cattle for its use, 
and where there is competition enough among the railroads to 
ensure moderate freights. Chicago and Kansas City of the Wes- 
tern markets are the only points where it has been absolutely safe 
to build an extensive plant, although Omaha during the last two 
years has secured cattle enough to ensure a steady supply for the 
dressed beef men there. While our great markets produced the 
dressed beef industry, they in turn are fostered and built up by 
it. Whenever we have other markets similar to the above of 
which we have been writing established, it is certain that a dressed 
beef plant will soon rise up beside them. 
This industry is creating, as already mentioned, a revolution 
among the retail butchers' trade. The old-time butcher, with his 
great rosy countenance, no longer appears at market. He goes 
to the slaughter-house and picks out his meat from the refrige- 
rators, or he contracts for a daily or weekly supply to be sent 
him. At outside points he calls at the refrigerator, where the 
meats are unloaded from the cars, and makes his purchases. A 
practical illustration of this revolution is worthy of record. 
Some years ago the writer was residing at Evanston, an impor- 
tant residence suburb of Chicago. The people who live there 
are of the wealthier class, and consume the best grades of meat 
obtainable. The principal butcher's shop was kept by an 
Englishman who understood his trade thoroughly. Every week 
he vvoiild corjie in to the Yards and take out a car-load of the 
