2 BULLETIN 1464, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
use has long been realized by the most progressive men connected 
with the industry. Nearly a quarter of a century ago Herbert W. 
Mumford, of the University of Illinois, did the pioneering work in 
standardizing market classes and grades of livestock. After doing 
a large amount of careful research work at Chicago and other large 
livestock markets. Professor Mumford prepared Bulletin No. 78 of 
the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station, entitled, "Market 
Classes and Grades of Cattle With Suggestions for Interpreting 
Market Quotations." This bulletin was issued in 1902. 
When the Bureau of Markets, now the Bureau of Agricultural 
Economics, of the United States Department of Agriculture, inau- 
gurated its market-reporting service on livestock at Chicago in 1918 
the market classes and grades of cattle as described in Professor 
Mumford's bulletin were used as the basis for formulating a tenta- 
tive classification of standard market classes and grades of cattle 
for use in this market-reporting work. The tentative classification 
adopted at that time was the result of a conference held at the Chi- 
cago Union Stock Yards in which representatives of the former 
Bureau of Markets, various State agricultural colleges, Chicago Live 
Stock Exchange, the packers, and several trade journals all took an 
active part. 
At present it is more or less generally recognized that if standard 
market classes and grades of livestock were in general use all persons 
connected with the livestock industry would be greatly benefited. 
Such an arrangement should aid in solving for the producer the ques- 
tions of what to produce and where and when to sell it. He could 
then market the grade of livestock he produced at the market de- 
manding it the strongest and willing to pay the most for it. This 
practice, if followed by all producers, should eventually result in 
orderly marketing, with all the benefits and savings which accrue 
therefrom. 
SYSTEMS OF MARKET CLASSES AND GRADES OF LIVESTOCK 
A stud}^ of existing market customs and practices at large central 
livestock markets shows that the formulation of a set of standards 
for market classes and grades of cattle is possible because several 
systems, based on practically the same fundamental principles and 
more or less perfected, are already in use at most large central live- 
stock markets. These s}^stems have developed with the growth, 
diversification, and specialization of the cattle industry in the United 
States. They were made possible by improved methods of transpor- 
tation and refrigeration and were made necessary by the large in- 
crease in urban or consuming population far removed from the center 
of most economical production, and by the gradual climbing of pro- 
duction costs of cattle to higher levels. 
The classes and grades, however, are not described in the same way 
on all markets, so that the shipper or producer who gets quotations 
from two or more markets finds that a certain grade is described 
differently at the different central markets. Each market has de- 
veloped a workable system, with a certain vocabulary peculiar to 
itself and common to the trade at that market but not at the other 
markets, 
