American Cattle Marlcets and the Dressed Beef Trade. 155 
among our buyers, find it is evident in the light of to-day that 
prices went too liigh. Ou September 17 an unprecedented run 
of cattle commenced. At Chicago alone in two weeks wo re- 
ceived 40,000 cattle moi'e than our average number. The same 
pressure to market stock continued through October, and we 
entered the month of November with our market back to Janu- 
ary prices or thereabouts. There is no mai-ket we know of so 
sensitive as the Chicago cattle market to the question of supply 
and demand. The dressed beef men and the shippers have their 
trade to supply from day to day, and any shortage causes an 
immediate advance. The salesmen and the buyers are not long 
in agreeing upon this point whenever the official numbers tell 
the tale. 
The gi'eatest complaint against the " Big Four " has come 
from the South-Western rangemen, whose cattle cannot be sold 
for dressed beef, and have to go into cans. The competition in 
this respect is very limited, and the prices obtained have gone 
down below the famine point. Still, it is a well-known fact 
that the storehouses are full of canned meat that cannot be pro- 
fitably put into money, and prices, to compete with the outside 
world, will need to go down lower still. What we should have 
done with our low grades of beef without the dressed-beef men 
and the canning factories, is more than we can tell. They have 
opened countless foreign markets. They have sent their goods 
all over the world, and they have made a market for our meats 
where under the old system we could never have obtained a 
foothold. 
The limit of this article does not allow us, nor would it be 
wise, to take up the export trade, both as regards live cattle and 
di'essed meats ; nor can we discuss the question of the price paid 
by the consumer for meat. Those subjects do not come exactly 
within the scope of American cattle markets ; but we may point 
out that our live-stock markets are carried forward on a cash 
basis. The Stock Yards interest has the Chicago banks, with 
resources of 30,000, 000^., to draw upon. Large sums are also 
borrowed at low rates in the East ; but the active daily financial 
work is put through two banks situated at the Yards — namely, 
the National Live-Stock Bank, which has a capital and surplus 
of about 175,000?. It has deposits of 500,000L, with discounts 
or loans amounting to 400,000?. It has 600 active accounts on 
its books, and the overturn is from 400,000^. to 600,000?. per 
day. A staff of twenty clerks look after the business. The 
Drovers' National Bank has a capital and surplus of 60,000?., 
with deposits of 150,000?., and loans to the same amount. The 
former bank, however, does the active business of the Yards. 
