The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-06-08

when 1t goes up rushes his cattle at
limited train speed to the yards and
sells out before the drop comes.
For the handling of these cattle the
original 300 acres has increased to 500,
450 acres of which is paved, most of it
with brick. In these clean, brick
paved pens (Which number 10000 there
are twenty-five miles of water trough.
There are two hundred and fifty miles
of railroad track in the yards. four
miles of unloading platform with
chutes, twenty-five miles of street,
ninety miles of water and fifty of sew
er pipe. ten thousand MIGRANTS. and a
waterworl<s having six artesian wells
running down 2,25O feet into the earth,
and supplying 5000, 900 gallons of wa
ter day.
The day has gone when the leading
packers are willing to give out fig
ures which will show the extent of
the enormous business which they are
carrying on. The statistics which fol-
low, however, are from a recent au-
thority, and represent the second larg-
est of the establishments making up
the socalled big g. The buildings &C.
cupied by the Mm, and which are in
the heart of "Packingtown," cover
siXty-five acres of ground. They range
from one-story sheds to eight-story
, smoke houses and warehouses, and ag
gregate one hundred and fifty acres of
floor space. This company employs
is, 433 men, to whom is paid weekly
wage of moro than 100000.
In one year this firm handled in Chi
cago l, 437,S44 cattle, 2,65S,951 sheep, and
3, 1928, $50 hogs. Much of the product of
these was consumed in Chicago,
being carried out from Packingtown
in the endless string of wagons which
runs from the warehouses to the city
a-l.k II. -
dressed beef and other meat products
were shipped from the city, much of it
for eastern consumption and export.
Nearly three hundred carloads a day
were shipped by this one firm of the
Chicago packinghouses. The largest
single days killing by this firm was
So, 140 animals210,973 cattle, 1871 sheep
and 1926 hogs. In the enormous cold
storage house which adjoin the abat-
toirs is room for the carcasses of Is, 116
cattle, IS 900 sheep and Il, 400 hogs.
The complete slaughter and dressing
of a steer in this house-from the time
it is knocked in the head in the pen
till it has been beheaded hung up by
the heels, skinned, Quilted, split washed
and passed on to the cooler takes
thirty-nine minutes. Cattle are
slaughtered in the ordinary course of
business at the rate of two hundred
and forty an hour or -FOUR every. mill
ute. Hogs are killed and dressed more
quickly than cattle. From the time
that the porker is shackled by the
hind legs and hoisted on to the trolley
till he has run by the sticker, been
cleaned, dipped in scalding water. split
and trimmed till he is in a temperature
of 3S degrees and slowly hardening is
only thirty-two and a half minutes.
From six hundred TO seven hundred
hogs are slaughtered every hour at
Swifts. Sheep take two minutes long
er than hogs for killing and dress
ing. and six hundred and twenty are
handled in 60 minutes.
As the business Of pork and beef
packing has increased the tendency has
been to narrow the work OF each man
down to some single act. Time was
when the butcher stuck the knife in the
pigs troat, hung him up. Quilted him.
end by deft strokes of many kinds re-
dCoed him to marketable shape. To-
day every hog passes one hundred and
fifty men. each Of whom has one thing
TO do in the process of dressing. one
cuts away the bench bone, another odd
bits Of hair. and another the leaf
Another splits the back bone. another
divides # into halves and another
washes IL with hot water This single
firm sells annually more than $500. 0O9
rams. most OF which are from the
ton az Omaha. Kansas City and 81.
Joseph.
By-Products Vast PROFIT.
But the profits ~ meat packing to-
day age not M the meat itself 10 mat