Vol. LVI. No. 2476. 
NEW YORK, JULY 10, 1897. 
$1.00, PER YEAR 
SHIPPING LIVE STOCK ABROAD. 
CATTLE AND SHEEP AS OCEAN PASSENGERS. 
Scenes on an Outbound Steamer. 
These lines are being written at sea on the Georgic, 
a steamer engaged in the transatlantic live-stock 
trade. She is the largest steamer in the world at 
present engaged in 
this business, and 
contains the most im¬ 
proved conveniences 
for this line of com¬ 
merce. She is 557 feet 
long, has a tonnage 
of 10,800 pounds and 
a freight capacity of 
18,000 tons. In the 
early days of live 
stock exportation, 
the amount of fatal¬ 
ity to the beasts was 
large; the animals 
were often penned on 
the upper deck, in 
very rough accom¬ 
modations, and on 
many voyages, the 
heavy seas swept 
these away and 
drowned or injured 
the animals. On the 
Georgic, an entirely 
different condition of 
affairs exists. This 
vessel is of steel, 
there is very little 
woodwork about her. 
The animals are all 
kept in permanent 
decks, with the 
danger of being 
washed overboard by 
heavy seas entirely 
removed. In the 
severest storms, the 
most that can be ex¬ 
pected is a shaking 
up from which no one 
is exempt at sea when 
elements are at work. 
The third and 
fourth decks are re¬ 
served in the main for 
live stock. Imagine 
a large room with a 
great number of ver¬ 
tical iron posts dis¬ 
tributed in system¬ 
atic order throughout 
it, to which may be 
affixed sets of hori¬ 
zontal iron piping, so 
as to construct a set 
of shelter stalls ail 
through the room, 
with narrow passage 
ways extending here 
and there, just as you 
would expect to find 
them in a barn. Each 
stall is eight feet deep 
and wide enough to contain four large steers or horses 
comfortably. In a long line of cattle, each four is 
separated by two of these horizontal bars (2%-inch 
iron) about a foot apart. The rule is to allow each 
horse or steer a space 2% x 8 feet, but if there is 
plenty of room on board, it is not rigidly observed. 
While the iron bars separate the cattle, the horses are 
kept apart by close board partitions, at least when 
the voyage begins, so as to prevent injury from kick¬ 
ing each other. 
I was up bright and early to see the Georgic loaded 
at the dock in New York. A number of transport 
boats came from Jersey City loaded with horses, 
cattle and sheep, and made fast to the wharf and to 
the side of the steamer. A lot of men had rapidly 
bedded with nice baled straw all the space devoted to 
stalls. Some iron rods were then arranged so as to 
form close alleyways, easily adjusted to suit the con¬ 
venience, and extending to any part of the decks de¬ 
sired, so that, in three hours’ time, 66 horses, 850 steers 
and 1,310 sheep were safely stowed away and we were 
ready to start for Liverpool. Their work was done 
with neatness and dispatch, and not a single instance 
did I observe of anything approaching cruelty in the 
loading. A trained gang of men were there, and I 
cannot conceive of better handling of stock than there 
took place. The horses were led off one at a time to 
their stalls, and fastened in with halters, while the 
sheep and cattle were 
driven on board in 
detachments. Each 
steer had a rope about 
his head at the horns 
or neck. With this, 
he was tied to a hori¬ 
zontal rod in front of 
him, leaving about 
2 14 feet of rope for 
play. The sheep were 
led in by a decoy. 
For some months, a 
bell wether cosset, 
surnamed Billy, a 
most demure looking 
beast, has been used 
in New York to lead 
the sheep from the 
transports on to the 
steamer. He takes 
the lead, a man 
shakes his bell vigor¬ 
ously, and the un¬ 
sophisticated ones 
follow into the for¬ 
ward part of the ship, 
where they are pro¬ 
vided with commo¬ 
dious pens usually 
two tiers deep. In 
some cases, 50 are in 
a pen, but there is 
sufficient room for 
each animal to lie 
down and chew the 
cud at pleasure. 
When the cattle 
were first brought on 
board, they were 
naturally wild, espe¬ 
cially as about 400 of 
them were Colorado 
steers ; but they soon 
settled down, and 
within 24 hours, 
seemed well at home 
on board. The fore¬ 
man of the gang in 
charge of their ship¬ 
ment, told me that 
just as soon as the 
animals found that 
they were not to be 
abused, they settled 
down quietly, and 
were easy to handle. 
The cattle are first 
watered about four or 
five o’clock in . the 
morning, after which 
they are given corn 
on the ear, or corn 
meal, followed by 
hay. They are again watered about 2 to 3 p. m., grain 
is again fed, followed by a hay feed about 4:30. The 
sheep have water in tubs before them all the time, 
and are fed a dry mixture of half corn meal and half 
oats once or twice a day according to circumstances. 
When we first started out, they were fed twice, now 
they are feeding once. The horses are watered three 
THE DELAWARE CRIMSON CLOVER CROP. CUTTING THE CLOVER. Fig. 190. 
THE HULLER AT WORK ON THE CRIMSON CLOVER CROP. Fig. 191. See Page 451. 
