The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-12-02
UNCLE SAINTS BIG BUTCHER SEEOP- C. Carpenter

Uncle Sam's whole meat-producing 1 plant is worth in the neighborhood of | $1S,000, 900, or enough to give every American family $500 worth of stock
 In the company. This does not include
 the receipts from transportation or the
 retail trade.
 1 The numbers of the cattle, sheep and | hogs raised here are so great that if they were divided equally every family | would have three cattle, two sheep and three hogs and there would be many thousnad little pigs and lambs to spare. l As consumer of meat the United 1 States also stands at the head of the | list. Ehere are many countries where almost no meat is eaten, and it is said that over half the worlds population 1 lives upon food other than meat The | nations which have surplus of meat for export are all meat-eating coun-
 trtes and they are comparatively few l in number. In fact the worlds export | trade in meat products is maintained by only nine nations. It is from the | United States, Argentina, Australia, l Canada, Denmark, Mexico, New Zea | land, Uruguay and Russia that the worlds supply of meat is obtained. The entire production is estimated at about 1 b0,000O0O,000 pounds per year, and this Is consumed by the people of compara- l lively few countries. It is divided among a population of about 500, coo, GOO, and the average consumption per capita 1 Is just over 93 pounds of beef, mutton and pork in one year. We Americans are the biggest meat eaters on the globe, with perhaps the exception of the Australians or the New Zealanders. We consume 50 per cent more meat than Great Britain or Germany, and twice
 as much as the people of France. In ] 1900 we were each eating on the average If mo TNAr md ol- 1 though this has since somewhat de- creased on account of the high prices, we still consume more than ITO pounds | of beef, pork and mutton for every man, woman and child in the country. The last census has estimated that over 15,-
 O00, ,0O0,00o pounds of meat and meat prod ucts were consumed here in 1909, while less than one-half that amount repre- sents the consumption in Germany for the year 1913. But let us see how this vast demand Is supplied, and how the thousands of animals are killed and made ready for the markets at home and for shipment to our army in France During my stay here in Chicago I have spent much time in the stockpens and packing establish
 ments, watching the journey of the steer
 as it comes in on the freight cars from
 the farms until it goes out in the 100 and more shapes in which it is sold in
 our markets. Chicago is the heart of the live stock and packing industry Of the United States. It is. to meat what
 Akron is to rubber, and what Detroit is to the automobile. u leads all other stock yards of the United States, and its
 receipts are more than double those of the Omaha stockyards, which stand next in importance. Its combined receipts for all kinds of cattle amounted last year to nearly 100000, while Omaha had less than S,00o,000 and Kansas City only little more than 100000. It han dled three times as many animals as St. Louis and more than four times
 the number that passed through the stockyards at St. Paul. The total num- Der of cattle which were turned into beef at the IA chief markets of the United States amounted to nearly 62,- Oo0,OO0. The average length of a steer is about 10 feet, and if all of the cattle handled last year could be placed nose to tail they would form single file halfway to the moon. At five abreast they would reach almost around the world, and the cattle from these Chicago stockyards alone would make a process sion of 10 deep as long as from here to the camps of our boys on the battle fields of France.
 But come with me and take a look at this city of animals. It covers a sollare mile or as much ground as a 640-acre farm. We first walk through the stock yards themselves. The air is filled with
 the believing of steers, the lowing of