Sturgis advertiser. (Sturgis, Dakota [S.D.]) 1887-1???, 1888-07-11
The Stock Yards of Chicago. !

The Stock Yards of Chicago.
A good descriptive writer in Chicago,
in calling the attention of the delegates
in attendance at the big convention to
some of the great Chicago institutions
they should visit before leaving for their
homes in all parts Of the country, gives
the following description Of the great
stock yards, and the packing business Of
that wonderful city, which will be Of
great interest. to those who have never
visited them, and those comparatively
few who have, will find the data given
good reading. He says:
'sThe visitors to the convention viii
see evidences of this increase of trade
everywhere. They will find ten story
buildings finer than many of the best
buildings in New York city, and the
stock yards and elevators will make
them open both their eyes and their
mouths too. The first lot of cattle that
was ever packed in Chicago was 200
head that were slaughtered in 1882.
This was only fifty six years ago, and
now the city is .the greatest packing
center of the western world. It proba-
bly, kills and packs more cattle, sheep
end hogs than any place on This big
round earth, and its establishments eat
up every year over 100000 hogs and
between 100000 and 100000 cattle.
Suppose the average hog to be four feet
long, and four foot hog would be a
short one, put these Chicago hogs nose
to tell and they would make single file
procession that would reach almost from
San Francisco to Liverpool. This is
supposing the hogs could walk upon the
water. They sc to Liverpool, however,
though they do not walk there, and a
great proportion Of the meat products of
Chicago are sent abroad.
''It is impossible to conceive the num-
her of animals slaughtered every year
In Chicago. There were enough hogs
killed in 1885 to have given one4halfof
a hog to each family in the United
States, and the calves killed numbered
$4,000. There were during this year
over 100000 live hogs shipped out
from the city, and the pounds of lard,
wool and hides ran high up into the
millions. The stock yards of the city
cover an area which would make several
good sized farms. The Union stock
yards comprise $50 acres of ground, and
there are twenty miles of streets,
twenty miles of water troughs and fifty
miles of feeding troughs in them. 1t
takes five artesian wells to supply them
with water, and the stock yards them
selves cost, all told, 100000.
."Near these stock yards are the meat
packing establishments, and if the con-
vention visitors can stand the smell they
will find them worth a visit. These es-
Establishments are factories where raw ma
terial is live stock. They take up COW
or hog and grind it out into hundred
different articles. Every part of the
animal is used for something, and the
hair and hoof are turned into manufac-
tured articles. The work is done very
quickly, and it's extent may be appre-
eiated when it is remembered Armour &
Co. have single establishment which
comprises seventy acres of flooring and
in which $500 men are employed. Phil
Armour has made his fortune out of
meat packing. He has also millions of
dollars invested in Kansas City and
Omaha, and it as a question as to whether
the packing center of the United States
will not soon leave Chicago for the
west"