The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1906-03-30


That is the msanes In which nearly
Lar. the .aeilias IA Ans.@-A~AiAi IN .the
ieweu possible wosds. q "noshin'
doin'" OF a rake 'em and weigh en-"
Lis .suikciept 70 closesthe deal on thor
fsands OF dollars. After the deal 10
closed the stock is driven BY the en-
ployes of the Stock Yard company
Ito one of the official scales, Of which
there are more than twenty on the
grounds in various parts of the yards.
The cattle are weighed in punches OF
twenty, and by a single stroke of the
pencil the weights are recorded on
four separate scale tickets, by the use
of carbon papers. One of these tickets
is retained by the Stock Yard COM
pany for future reference, one goes to
the commission man, another to the
buyer and the fourth to the shipper,
The commission man figures the
amount due on the sale. deducts his
commission and the yardage and
freight charges with the feeding
charges in transit, which in many in
stances means a week or ten days
feeding from our valley to Chicago.
He then delivers to the shipper. or
mails it to him as may have been
agreed upon, delivers another check
to the railroad company that has
brought the stock to market ana
awaits the arrival of his check from
the packing house. The packers ticket
is delivered to their Office by a mes
enger, is certified to by the buyer, and
passed to the Office where a check IS
drawn for the full amount'of the pr
chase to the commission man. The
shipper has had nothing to do bit
load the stock at the country station
and see to it that none of the cattle
get down in the cars and get tramplen
BY the other stock. Should this hap
pen and the stock should be SO crowd
ed that the one that is down cannot
be gotten up the shipper should notify
the conductor of the train and have
him set the car out at the nearest
stock yard, where he can let the Others
out and get the "downer" on his feet
land reload them and proceed on the
journey. On our roads the conductors
are very independent about such
things as a rule, because their road has
no competition and every one is forced
to ship over their road whether they
get proper treatment or not, but the
nearer you get to Chicago the better
treatment you get as the competition
becomes stronger.
From the official scales the stock is
driven through elevated and covered
runways which gradually rise from the
level of the yards to the roof Of the
packing house. Here on top of a six
story building they emerge into the
shippers private stock yards, i'll them
selves much larger than are found in
many western cities. From these
yards the cattle are taken down
inclined chutes to the top floor
down inclined chutes to the top floor
If the packing house as fast as they
ate wanted for slaughtering. Hogs
are easily driven down these chutes,
but with cattle and sheep it is much
more difficult to handle them, and
trained steers are kept to lead the
doomed cattle down to their death,
and trained goats are kept to lead the
sheep down.
The cattle, no matter how wild they
may have been when loaded, will fol-
ow the leader down the chute and into
the killing pens, and after they are
all in, the trained steer which is al
most universally known as "Judas,"
turns and walks out of the pens, back
up the chute TO become acquainted
with the next bunch that he is to lead
to death.
The cattle are driven into these pens
in punches Of twelve and there are
many pens being used all the time.
From an elevated position the
knocker," a skilled muscular man,
strikes a steer on the forehead with
a maui. The steer drops unconscious,
one side of his pen is raised by an
automatic device and the steer rolls
down an incline to the floor of the
packing house which is a little lower
than the pens. Here everything is
hurry and hustle. Overhead are iron
tracks with chains and hooks suspend
ed from rollers on the tracks.
Under each of these tracks stand
lines of men with knives, saws and
c~levers in hand ready to do their
respective part of the work of slaught-
ring which has been assigned to them.
When the steer rolls down on to
the floor a workman instantly fastens
chains around his hind legs, and by
simply pressing a button the steer is
hoisted by electricity into the air un-
til his nose is about three feet from
the floor. The man with the knife,
by one slash cuts his throat and his
blood flows forth from his veins into
a trough in the floor which is pro-
vided for that purpose and is carried
off through pipes to where it rs taken
care of for fertilizing purposes.