The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-06-08
4 PRIzE HERD Of
BEEF Cattle

| 10000 of them. Swift, the Anglo-Amer-
lean, Hammond, Libby. each concern
has it's own. There are others owned
by the railroads and by the smaller
! houses and by special companies which
| accommodate those who have not cars
! of their own. There are more than
! 100 firms engaged in the business Of
packing meat about the Union Stock
Yards, though the six big ones have
the bulk of the business.
ChicagO's Greatest Industry.
Thus it is that of all of the beef
slaughtered in this country more than
40 DER cent.-nearly half, in fact is
killed in the packing houses about the
Chicago stOckyards. In 1901 more than
three million cattle were shipped
thither from every state in the union,
and of these nearly two-thirdS-a lit
tie less than 100000, were slaughtered
and dressed in the yards. Eight mil
lion hogs of twenty-five million killed
in the whole country, and 100000
sheep shared their fate. as did nearly
100000 calves. A single railroad brought
$1,000 carloads and others nearly as
many each.
These millions were not the lank,
long horned Texas cattle that former
ly met their death in Chicago, but
blooded stock, mostly hornless. though
numbering many fancy short-horns.
and they reached the yards fat and
sleek from the feeding farms of Iowa,
Illinois, Missouri, and in fact, from
nearly every part of the country.
Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas raise
corn by millions of bushels. The
greater part of that corn they feed to
the cattle from the grazing country.
These corn fed cattle have made Amer
lean beef famous. And in the dress
ing and shipping of that beef at Chi
Cago centers the labor of not only the
herders Of Texas and the short grass
| country-all of. western Kansas and
| Nebraska-but the corn raisers as well
who form middle men between the
plainsmen and the packers.
The farmers are swiftly learning that
| corn in the shape of good beef is
worth more than corn on the cob. So
! not only from the West but from the
| South and even from the East fancy
cattle go to Chicago. 1t is not uncom-
| mon for blooded COW or bull to bring
| $4,000 at the stokyards. Farmers who
ten years ago had not a beef animal
| on their grounds now number their
! herds by hundreds, and have found
| that a small herd of fancy stock can
! be raised and marketed profitably
| where the longhorn of happy memory
| would have been an utter failure. Ten
| years ago the action of the president
would have affected not a tenth Of
| the men and women who are reached
| by it to-day.
Five Hundred Busy Acres.
This meat trade of the country CEN
tiers, not inly in Chicago, but in a
restricted area in that city in the old
! town of Lake. In that area where last
year 40 per cent of the cattle and a
/ 10,
/ marketed, there has been stock yard
| for thirty seven years. In those years
| $500, 600 90 stock that has been market
| ed there has aggregated the stupendous
/ sum of more than $4,000 600 600, and
! that is merely the raw material that
has come there to be manufactured
| into meat. The value of the manulac-
tured product is incalculable.
The Stock Yard Conpany's original
/ stock of a million dollars was quickly
| subscribed. The yards as opened in
! December, 1865, occupied 800 acres of
marsh land on Halsted street.-the pres
ent site. At first the cattle came in rude
! cars, crawling over rough rails from
/ the West to be unloaded, fed, watered,
rested and sold at the yards thence to
/ be dispatched East or slaughtered for
/ local consumption. The value OF the
/ cattle handled increased in eight years
/ from $40 900 to three times that
| sum. Last year lo,0uO,OOO animals with
a total value Of two hundred and
| eighty-thrce millions dollars were han
/ died On the yards.
/ To-day the cattle. sheep and hogs.
! travel Chicagoward at express sched-
! ulc. ln palace stock cars" and IL is
I no remarkable achievement for q man
10 land "a herd Of 600 animals IN the
I yards in "a single day. ~ that they may
] be- disposed Of m once az the top of
] the market " The old waav ~ aauTIuns
/ in cattle and taking The best price obs
/ talnabie, has passed To-day The far
mer watches the price Of beef, and