Fig. 10.—Bird's Eye View of Union Stock Yards, Chicago.
The country became more thickly settled as they went on, and the towns were nearer together. Streams were more common, and grass and timber more abundant. The young traveler wondered why this was so. Can you tell?
Early in the morning of the fourth day the train reached Chicago. After much switching and backing the cars were run into the Union Stock Yards, and the cattle were unloaded.
Ramon was thoroughly bewildered by what he saw and heard. Men were shouting and cracking whips; others were riding up and down the alleys that separate the yards; dogs were barking and turning the animals this way and that, and gates were swinging back and forth.
The cattle were weighed and examined to see if they had any disease, and were then placed in charge of a commission merchant to be sold. Buyers come to the yards and bargain with these commission merchants. When an unusually large number of cattle come in, the prices are likely to fall; when few arrive, the prices rise.
When the cattle had been yarded, Ramon's father said that they would go and have breakfast. In the afternoon they visited the "yards," and the slaughter and packing houses. The "yards" cover about a square mile of territory. They are divided into countless pens or small yards, containing sheds, feeding racks, and watering troughs.
Ramon asked how many cattle were unloaded in these yards daily. His father handed him a copy of the Chicago Live Stock World, and at the top of the first column he read that on the day previous there had been received 18,500 cattle, 35,000 hogs, and 18,000 sheep. He was told that sometimes the receipts are much larger than this and sometimes not so large.
Fig. 11.—Dressing Beef.