27 
them to the vicinity of the Missouri river, where they are unloaded, 
fed, watered, and rested for one day. Another twenty-four hours’ 
ride and they are near Chicago. They are not at once put on the 
market, but are unloaded a few miles out of Chicago and fed from 
one day to a week, according to their condition and the condition of 
the market. When it is desired to sell them they are loaded early in 
the morning, put in the pens at the Chicago stock yards, where they 
are so scared that they will neither eat nor drink and are weighed and 
sold as soon as possible. The shrinkage in weight from Colorado to 
Chicago is considerable, notwithstanding the two rests and feeds. In 
past years on exclusive corn feeding, live per cent, was considered a 
fair shrinkage. Some bunches have gone through with only a three 
per cent, shrink, while eight per cent, is not uncommon. Tlie wheat- 
red sheep of 1894-95 have showed some surprising shrinkages. One 
bunch of extra fine western lambs weighed at the cars 122 pounds per 
head after a drive of about a mile. In Chicago they weighed out 
only 104 pounds, a shrinkage of eighteen pounds per head, or over 
fourteen per cent. Early shipments of fat wethers and ewes showed 
nearly as great a shrink. Toward the close of the season as the sheep 
became fatter, the per cent, of shrink was somewhat less. 
COST OF SHIPPING. 
The freight rate from Colorado common points to Chicago is $95 
per 30-foot car, with ten per cent, added for a 36-foot car. To 
this is added $15 for loading and unloading when feeding in transit. 
Two car loads in the fall will require three cars to take them to 
market in the spring, or two cars at $110 per car and one at $95. 
Three cents per day per head is charged for feed at each of the two 
feeding places on the road. A yard fee of live cents per head is ex¬ 
acted by the stock yards in Chicago, and the live-stock broker charges 
i commission of ten dollars per car for selling. To these items of 
cost are to be added the wages and hotel expenses of the man in 
charge for the twelve days occupied by the trip. Most of the men 
ire willing to go for their bare expenses for the sake of the trip. 
Sheep are always shipped in double-deck cars. The deck of a 36- 
foot car holds about ninety large western wethers or one hundred and 
twenty southern lambs. The expenses of shipping would be then for 
large sheep, for one thousand head: 
Freight on four cars @ $119.50.$478.00 
Freight on two cars @ $104.50. 209.00 
Feed two days @ 6 cents per head. 60.00 
Yardage at Chicago @ 5 cents per head. . 50.00 
Commission on six cars. 60.00 
Expenses of three men @ $40. 120.00 
Total 
$977.00 
