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l i - mi HUM inn f ' '' 1-iJ ti. I l
WEIUHMASTliU AT WOKK I'hoto by a
Staff Artist.
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ON THE UOA1) FKOM CARS TO
ARLV-inorniiig Bceuts at thj I'niou
Stutk Yards of South Otuahu an;
scenes of Kreat activity. As the
trainlnad if iHttle hiiL'S and
sheep come rolling in day after
all directions one must realize
extent the immensity of the
tributary to Omaha and the
day fiom
to some
count ry
wealth (f liveHuck
it
contains. That
the fall of the
hiK-i but western
is e.sjn i ially true in
year, when not only
cattle and tln-cp are
also be n mar-
Kfted. The bulk tf that bus nesa is han
dled from the middle of August to Thanks
giving time and every state wei,t of the
Missouri and from Kansas north is drawn
upon. During the remainder of the year
Iowa and Nebraska furnish the great bulk
of the receipts. The movement of wesurn
cattle and sheep so far this yiar has been
the heaviest on record and M o cars f
ftoek in one day is nothing unusual, while
over 6io cars have been received iu a single
day. In figures that amounts to over 12.0HO
head of cattle, l,fou head of hogs and 27.
000 head of sheep, or a total of over 40,nno
head.
Statisticians tell us that Americans are b -coming
the greatest meat eaters in the
orld, and that la easy to believe when It
Handling Hogs
HIS HIGHNESS THE HOU AT HOME-SCENE
by Stimson, Cheyt'tiue.
V r
TENS - l'hoto by a Staff Artist.
Is remembered that not only Omaha i.i
slaughtering cattle, hogs and sheep by the
thousands daily, but that Chicago, Kansas
City, St. Joseph, St. Taul, Sioux City and
several other places are doing the same
thing to a greater or less extent. Neither
does that take Into consideration the
amount of stock that is slaughtered in
the country by small houses and by private
individuals, which in the agnregate mounts
up into big figures.
Tne work of receiving and selling sto:k
ill the big livestock centers has come to be
a science. It has taken years to systema
tize it, but now that it has b-en acconi
plialud it is an Interesting sight to sci
with what ease 6(in cars of stock can be
handled without getting the different ship
mints mixtd or confused in any way. The
trains arrive at a'l times of the day und
night, but most of them reach the yards
in the early morning. The stock yards
company has men on watch all night
to receive and care for the stock that
arrives, so that no time Is lost in getting
it out of the cars and into pens, where it
can rest and be put In good condition for
the market. The yarda are all lighted, so
that the night is turned into day.
At toon as a train arrives it Is switched
for Metropolitan Markets
......
ON THE RANCH OK OHEItl'EMiEK
HI' VERS AND SELLERS
w :i J-.-i J ;" h I 1 W '.'"?!
" ' ' --:.--aj a r ..... .. ,. -. f (- , Vt-i f -f m., I f. r -. ' j
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ON THE ROAD To THE SIIAMIiI.ES. LEAVING THE SCALES A FT EH I1E1NG WEIGHED I'hoto by u Staff Artist
onto the tracks owned by the btoik yards
company, which lead to the chutes or un
loading pens. Of these there are eighty
three, so that theoret It-ally that number of
cars can be unloaded as quic kly as one car.
While that Is not actually accomplished,
still It takes but a very short time for a
train to discharge its cargo and pull out of
the way for the next train. The chutes ure
simply pens Lirae rm ugh to hold a car of
stock and they slope down from the height
of the car doot to (he level of the stock
yards. When the stock is in th chutes the
work of yarding begins. Each car i f
stock Is, of course, consigned to some com
mission firm and the employes of the stock
yards compauy make a record of every car
unloaded, giving the name of the cons gtn-e
and the consignor. The stock is then driven
up one of the various alleys, the hogi gnln
to the hog division, the cattle to the cattl"
division and the sheep to the sheep barn.
When a carload Is put In a pen it is locked
up and a record made of the, block ami the
number of the pen, the yards being divided
into blocks, which are lettered, and the
pens numbered. When that Is com
pleted the stock yards company Is through,
so far as the receiving part Is concerned,
3
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- -rrzz. . k'i
ItUOS. AT SIHNKV. N EH. l'lmtn
OK HOGS AT SOITH OMAHA STOCK
ft
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and the stock is tin u in the tare of the
commission man to whom it is consigned.
These records made by the stock yards
company are enter d In books and the rep
resentatives of the commission men go
th re to find out what stock they have to
sell. It then devolves upon the commis
sion m n to see that the stock is properly
fed, watered and sorted so that It will make
the best possible uppearance. Each pen
contains water troughs and the stock yards
company has corn und hay ready for dis
tribute!), so that feed and water Is abun
dant. Tin re is no sit time for the market to
open. Iu the winter time trading frequently
begins as soon as it is daylight, but the
time at which the market opens depends
upon how anxious buyers are for supplies
and upon how long it takts buyers and
sellers to get together on prices.
In the hog division there Is one particu
lar corner around which most of the buyers
and sellers congregate. It is there that the
shanties, us they ure railed, of the different
pa kers ure located. The shanties contain
telephones, so that the buyers are In direct
communication with their respective houses.
Each packing house is represented by two
- .
nfi j.
1--
PUWVlNli RATIONS Kolt THE HOlIS
I'liolo liy a Stuff Art int.
YARDS I'hoto by a Stuff Artist.
. Iff
buyers, the head buyer und his assistant,
und it very frequently requires the com
bined efforts o( IjoI h to g the number of
hogs they have orders for without being
obliged to pay too much for them. There
Is no place In the whole stock yards where
iik re shrewdness is displayed than in the
hog division.
It sometimes happens that there ure not
enough hogs to fill the orders for fresh
meat which the different packers have auj
when that is the case a lively market is
experienced. It is the object of the buy
ers, of course, to get their droves as
cheaply as possible, and In order to do
that they must keep the sellers from finj
ing out that they want the hogs. TV
salesmen, of course, are always alert for
the best Interests of their patrons and
the way in which they squeeze a packer
whenever they can catch him short shows
that they have no conscientious scruples
against getting all they can for their hogs.
It Is not the packers, however, that always
get squeezed, for It would take a wise
salesman Indeed to be able to tell just
how many hogs the different packers want
iConliuuecl on rage Eight )
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