42 BULLETIN 1317, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
This service is a special convenience to farmers during harvest time 
and to summer resorts. 
Since a route is usually operated only once or twice a week, the 
sales per customer average considerably larger than sales per cus- 
tomer in the shop. In general, the quality and price of the meat 
sold on the route is the same as that sold in the retailers' shop, but 
it is often possible for the retailer to dispose of rougher cuts that 
are less in demand in the villages. The additional expense of oper- 
ating routes is comparatively small, since the equipment consists of 
a horse and wagon with a canvas-covered box for the meats, which 
may or may not be iced. Routes served by horse-drawn vehicles 
cover an average of 15 to 20 miles a day. Auto trucks, sometimes 
used, often cover an average of 60 miles a day. Where there is 
sufficient demand, this extension of the distance covered is more than 
proportionately profitable. 
MEAT PEDDLERS 
Irregularity in the operations of meat peddlers makes it impossible 
to determine the relative importance of this method of retailing 
fresh meats, but both farmer and professional peddlers are important 
factors in the trade of many localities. Lack of a convenient mar- 
ket and the possibility of a larger return for their surplus livestock 
frequently lead farmers to dispose of it by this method. 
Peddling of fresh meats by farmers is chiefly confined to the fall 
and winter. Commercial peddlers usually operate during the entire 
year, but are likely to be more active in the summer, when summer 
residents abound in the Northeast and when farmers in the West are 
unable to slaughter because of the busy season and unfavorable 
weather. 
Farm peddlers usually slaughter only their own livestock, although 
a class known as butcher- farmers sometimes purchase stock from 
neighbors. Since farmers have a personal pride in the animals 
they slaughter, there is little likelihood of using stock obviously 
diseased. On the other hand, the commercial peddler usually 
purchases animals wherever he finds them, slaughters them where 
they are purchased, and retails the meat the next day on his route. 
There is, therefore, more likelihood that commercial peddlers will 
slaughter animals that are in poor and diseased condition. The 
personal reliability and integrity of such retailers is therefore the 
only reliance of customers and is often a sufficient guaranty of 
quality and sanitary handling. The cattle are slaughtered under 
essentially crude farm conditions, usually beneath a tree or in a 
barn. This method is often insanitary, but it is undoubtedly pref- 
erable to slaughtering done in small, uninspected slaughterhouses, 
with danger of contamination from decaying offal. 
Oil fields and mining territory, where the population is industrial 
and comparatively dense but too scattered to warrant the establish- 
ment of a retail shop, afford a good outlet for meat peddlers. In 
many instances they are the only source from which residents of the 
country and small villages can procure fresh meats. 
The indications are that there was a comparative increase in the 
peddling of fresh meats, especially by farmers, during 1921, because 
of the low prices of livestock and high transportation rates. On 
