AMERICAN MEAT MARKETS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2743, 7 January 1882, Page 2

AMERICAN MEAT MARKETS.

Chicago is the great depot ami distributing point for the live cattle trade of the United States, about 30,000 passing through every week. The cars are open or “ slatted,” and the animals are found to ride best put in loose, with no stalls. Extra floors are put in for sheep and hogs. The cars hold 15 to 19 native bullocks or 20 to 25 Texans. Cattle are sold by weight, and the scales and the scales me constructed to weigh about 40 at once. A well-fatted native steer will wcigli from 1,2001 b to 1,5001 b ; occasionally they go os high as 2,5001 b. Tho dealers in New York have a curious way of selling bullocks which is different from any other market. A bullock is sold at its dress weight before it is dressed —that is, a lean animal would be estimated to dress 531 b to 521 b a hundred, a good one 56 to 591bs, and a fancy one 601 b to 621 b. Thus the price per pound of dressed beef is. charged on the number of pounds the animal is estimated to dress per hundred of its live weight. Chicago now far eclipses Cincinnati in its hog traffic, and handles from 100,000 a week in summer, to 20,000 and 60,000 a day in winter.