SHBINKAGE OF WEIGHT OF BEEF CATTLE IN TRANSIT. 51 
farmers, and although they may not raise the former range cattle, 
they will most likely raise better ones and will finish many of them 
on the farms. 
In some parts of the semi-arid Northwest where irrigation is not 
feasible and dry farming is too uncertain, the ranchman will possibly 
hold sway for generations to come. Here, then, will be found the 
man who will continue to raise cattle, and who will be interested in 
any phase of cattle investigations which may accrue to his benefit. 
The shrinkage of his cattle in transit is an item of vital interest to 
him because of the great distance to market, and any information 
> which would throw light on this subject is therefore valuable. The 
trade from the Pacific coast is developing to such an extent that 
buyers are covering all of this section. If the cattleman knew ap- 
proximately what his cattle would shrink in shipping to market, and 
knew his freight rate and other expenses incidental to shipping, he 
could quickly estimate from the market quotations what his cattle 
were worth on the farm and would be in a position to price them 
intelligently to prospective buyers. 
There has been less complaint about shrinkage in the Northwest 
than in the Southwest for several reasons : The facilities for shipping 
are usually better, the cattle trains make faster time, and the facilities 
for feeding and watering the cattle at points in transit are better. 
The Northern Pacific road is to be especially commended for the 
facilities for unloading and feeding stock at their new yards at 
Staples, Minn. Forty cars can be " spotted " for unloading at one 
time, and the cattle can be very quickly unloaded and penned with 
feed and water before them. The manager of the yards is advised 
by wire of the number of cars to be fed there, and feed and water are 
in the pens when the cattle arrive, so there is no delay in allowing 
the cattle to fill. The yards are equipped with both open and covered 
pens, the latter to be used in case of bad weather. The pens are away 
from the town, where the animals can be absolutely quiet and not 
disturbed until reloading time. It is to be noted that cattle unloaded 
at this point invariably took a good fill and had a quiet rest which 
enabled tnem to stand the remainder of the journey to St. Paul or 
Chicago well. 
The distances the cattle have to be driven to the loading pens are 
usually shorter than in the Southwest, and as grass is usually abun- 
dant during the shipping season they arrive at the pens in very good 
condition. As a rule the cattle are larger and in better flesh and 
are strong enough to stand up well during the long journey. 
The shrinkage investigation in the Southwest described in Part I 
of this bulletin brought out the fact very clearly that to get accurate 
results on the shrinkage of cattle large numbers must be used, because 
there are so many factors that may influence a single shipment or 
