Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-07-19
Rock Island Road Overhaul1ng
It's Yards at Carbon
Cliff,
e. 1872 CARLOADS IN YEAR
Electric Light Plant to Be Installed
Alleys and Chutes of Concrete
Interesting Establishment.

veritable model hotel for comfort Of
cattle, sheep, hogs and horses er
transit between points west and points
east
These stock yards, which are the big
Rock Island system, were opened fol
| live stock in November three years
ago. The yards will rank among the
most modern in the entire country
when the following improvements are
completed:
General overhauling, now under
way.
installation this fall of an electric
light plant
Concreting of alleys and chutes, half
completed.
Proposed concreting of floors of all
stock yard pens.
Proposed erection of an addition to
be used as quarantine" quarters for
Texas live stock. now tabooed in the
yards.
The two improvement plans last
mentioned are only tentative and may
not be carried out for some time.
Naturalization of the others has
either already been begun or will be
started this fall
Already the stock yards contain mod
ern features as follows
Sheds over pens for live stock.
Complete fire-fghting system.
Excellent water system, which pipes
drinking water to every pen.
Excellent facilities for quick loading
and unloading of stock, which enables
yard attendants to handle many car
loads each day during rush season.
The general overhauling included
thorough cleaning of all the pens fol
lowing a busy winter during which a
record breaking number of carloads of
live stock was handled.
Electric Light Plant.
The electric plant in the stock yards
will be quite an innovation, as every
pen will be wired, thus making the
room" of the live stock guests as up
to-date in one way at least as are the
suites in the metropolitan hostelTies.
haunted by members of the hupan
family. Then, too, the quarters at
Hotel Livestock have better running
water in every room than is furnished
by some of the SO per day resorts pat
rOnized by Pullman car travellers, not
to mention the select quality of the
cafe menu - homegrown hay, Illinois
corn and guaranteed oats - which is
rendered the quadrupeds en- transit TO
Chicago and oblivion.
The electric plant will be operated by
a four-hOrse power engine that will be
installed in addition TO the gasoline
affair that operates the watering sys.
tenn
The watering system is made up of
a big windmill, the gasoline engine for
use on days when the west wind is at
a lull, and a storage tank from which
the flow descends by gravity to live
stock pens. Hydrants there are con-
venient to the watering troughs, and it
is possible for employees to start the
flow without even entering the apart
ment" set aside for Mr.. Steer or Mr..
Hog.
The same attentive feature is noted
in connection with the manner III which
food is served The racks in the var
ious pens are always stocked to the
limit with understanding hay in order
that the hungry transients may come
down the chutes, enter their quarters
and eat to their fill without preliminar-
les and ceremony.
Operate 81 Pens.
Some idea of the size of this hostelry
maintained by railroad for live stock
passing over its lines is gained from
the statement that there are SO pens in
the yards, which cover 21a acres. The
railroad also holds 60 acres of level,
loamy adjacent farm land from which
two crops of fine hay and crop of
oats are taken annually and used as
partial supply for the seemingly bot
tomless Harder"
Accommodations of the hosiery are
limited but by no means meagre. At
various times as many as 65 carloads
of live stock have been accommodated
at one time.
6O3 Carloads in One Month.
The busiest month in the history of
the Carbon Cliff yards was last Febru
ary. During that month 603 loads of
cattle, sheep and hogs were cared for. !
For these transients it was necessary
to provide:
Pounds of hay .................. S6,650
Bushels of corn 1895
Bushels of oats 2SS
Nobody knows how many gallons of
water.
The law says that the minimum time
to be spent at the hosiery by any live
stock is five hours. Many of the we'll
TODD quadrupeds. whose owners are
possessed of aff1uence above the aver
age, manage to content themselves
with spending a day, more or less, at
the yards. OF course, this question of
length of visit is also determined to
some extent by the promptness with
which freight trains get under way
yrsnter months t,.a IF