Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1889-01-18
FROM RANCH TO TABLE,
FHE TRANSPORTATION, SALE AND
SLAUGHTER OF CATTLE.
Carrying Live Stock in stable
Cars-Methods of KilIing-Dis-
tribution of the Dressed Beef.

Carrying Live Stock in stable
Cars-Methods of KilIing-Dis-
tribution OF the Dressed Beef.
1t was formerly the custom to ship all
grades of cattle in the old square boxes
called cattle cars, into which the animals
we're crowded without any regard to
bruise, breakage, or death. This system
has been changed to one of shipment in
palace" and ''stable" cars, and now all
the best grades of cattle are brought
from the great Western ranches to Chi
sago in this manner
These stable cars are 80 feet long and
5 feet 4 inches wide on the inside, with
portable partitions, dividing the cars
into three compartments. Each car is
furnished with hay racks and water
sroughs. There is no crowding, and the
car usually contains from Is to 20 steers.
On being unloaded, the cattle are han
died with the utmost care and are driven
10 the pens in the division yards, where
the commission merchant orders them to
be watered and fed and places them on
sale under the most advantageous con-
iitions. Each of the great dressed beef
firms of Chicago employs a number of
buyers, on each of whom there is invari.
ably weigher in attendance. After
beng purchased, the cattle are weighed
and then driven to the viaduct or
slaughter house. Under the authority
If the Chicago Health Department the
inspection at the stock yards is very
rigid. The Illinois Humane Society also
has an officer stationed in the stock
yards, who takes every precaution to
prevent cruelty to the animals.
When the cattle are brought into the
slaughter house they are treated to a
cold-water bath by means of hose.
This has been found to be very
etiectual means of reducing the tempera-
ture of the animals and getting them in
the best possible condition for killing.
In rotation and by sure stages, through
long line of pens, the cattle approach
the fatal telling pen, where they are
rapidly dispatched by a man who
handles the rifle with the unerring aim
Of an Indian scout, or the spear with the
dexterity of Cossack lancer. After
being killed, each steer is hauled from
the telling pen to the "skinning bed, I"
where he is bled. the head being severed
from the body and the carcass hosted
by the hind legs to iron runs or rails
overhead. Then it is allowed to hang
for 10 or Is minutes, So as to give the
blood every chance to drain from the
body. Coagulation in the veins, which
was so common under the old system of
bleeding, is thus avoided. After the
bleeding, the carcass is lowered to the
floor, the entrails are removed, the
bullock is "sided," and then the body is
once more hoisted to the runs. Here the
skin is dropped and the flesh inside and
out is cal efully wiped down with clean
cloth. The next step is to cleave the
carcass in twain and to run it into the
cooling room, where it remains from SO
to 4S hours if heavy and "a hours if
light.
The cooling rooms, devoted to the ex-
elusive use of shipping beef, are four in
humber. Each measures 1870 feet
square, and has a capacity of 800 car
casses, or total of 5000 for the four
rooms. The temperature of the cooling
rooms and the refrigerator cars is kept
as nearly equal as possible at from 3G
degrees to 80 degrees, and by this uni
form temperature the best results are
attained. Between the cooling rooms
and the platform where the refrigerator
cars are drawn up is shipping
The beef that is ready for shipping is
run out into this apartment, where it is
weighed, quartered and inspected. The
inspection is very rigid, and nothing
blemished is permitted to 60 out.
The refrigerator car is 20 feet long
and s feet 2 inches wide on the inside.
1t is feet inches from the floor to the
cross beams on which the hooks are
fastened, and l foot 2 inches from the
cross beams to the roof. This latter
space admits an uninterrupted current OF
air, The car is supplied with galvan-
lied iron tanks at each end, and they are
filed with a mixture of pounded ice and
coarse salt. This produces a temperature
of from 80 degrees to 80 degrees in the
closed car. The chilling influence Of
the tanks forces a circulation and rarifes
the air. When loaded, the refrigerator
car contains from thirty to thirty three
carcasses, averaging about $50 pounds.
All the hind quarters are hung
in one end of the car, and
the forequarters in the other
The cars are iced the day before ship
ping, are reilled just before loading,
and are iced again every twenty -foul
hours at regular stations on the Journey
East. Experiments have proved that il
this way beef can be kept sweet for tw,
or three weeks and will taste quite a.
well at the expiration of that time a.
meat killed and eaten within two o.
three days. When the cars return empty
they are side-tlacked at the packing
house and there undergo scrubbine
and cleaning with boiling water, tn,
hooks are washed and polished, and tn,
car is allowed to stand twenty.four hour
with open doors before it is again loaded
Tor the Eastern market.
The distribution of the dressed bee
throughout the East is by agencies O.
depots at numerous points and including
all the large cities. These depots ar
constructed and run on principles dupli
Gated from the Chicago establishment
The beef is sold and distributed through
out the surrounding country until ever,
town or village that is accessible in tn
district is supplied. The business j
already enormous and is still increasing
There are ninety-one fully organized
commission firms doing business at tn
Chicago Union Stock Yards, in the re
leiving, handling, and selling of liv