Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1873-01-06
LETTER FROM Nj. J. OWEN,

LETTER FROM Nj. J. OWEN.
Mr.. EDIToR-I take the last oppor-
tunity offered me of writing few lines
for your paper about my journey from
Kansas, and, as there are some of the
citizens of Barton who have not been
over this route, [ shall trust to the fresh
ness of the subject to interest the many
readers of the Monitor. If any one
should ask me what | saw of interest in
my journey through Kansas, | should
say cornstalks from the fact that they
stood so high, and the fields stretched
so far back, that | saw but little else.
How Kansas will compare with the 9th
err states in the average yield of corn to
to the acre, | shouldn't want to say, but
I'll be "afidavited' that she will beat
the world on corn-fodder.
My first stop was in Kansas City;
which, like Rome, is built on hills only
more SO. Instead of seven hills, there
are about seventy times seven, not to
mention the ravines, and stagnant pools,
which are numerous and nasty but not
withstanding the natural obstacles to be
overcome, it is one of the most thorough
ly live cities | have seen, and is fast be-
coming great railroad center. From
Kansas City took what is called the
shoot line railroad for Chicago, crossing
the Mississippi at Louisiana. / stop
ped one day in Chicago and looked over
the city little saw but few traces
of the fire, occasionally a heap Of ruins,
and in some places the Nicholson pave
ment was partly burned. The new build
ings going up are substantial structures
of stone; and the new Chicago will far
surpass the old. Among the objects of
interest are the packing houses. went
through one that packed three hundred
beeves a day. The cattle were confined
in large lot in front of the house, and
were driven from there, up chute, to
a lane on level with the second floor.
From this lane they were driven into
little pens, each pen holding two beeves,
and these pens open into the slaughter
house.
When they are secured in these little
pens, a man with rifle walks along or
the top and shoots them; the doors are
opened, and they are drawn in with {
windlass. Then the butchers, each will
steel and two or three knives in hi:
belt, take them, three or four to eacl
beef, and in few minutes the animal i
skinned, dressed, and hung on rollers
overhead, ready for the packers. On
man takes away the heads in a wheel
barrow; and the offal is removed il
trucks. Over four hundred carcasse
were hanging in the room, the butcher
adding to one end of the long rows, ant
the packers taking from the other.
The supply for the packing house
comes from the Union Stock Yards
just across the railroad The stock yard
are situated just outside the city limits
and cover one hundred and eighty acres
This large lot is divided into divisions
each being about mile long, and
hundred yards wide, and separated fror
each other by wide streets. Each divis
ion is divided into blocks and each bloc
into pens, all having their numbers
When shipper arrives with stock, h
has only to notice the number of tn
pen, block, and division in which hi
stock is put, report these to the office
and order what he wishes for his stock
Water is supplied from large tank
built on high platform in the center {
the yard, and from which pipes lead t
every pen in the yards.
BARTON, DEC. 28th, 1872