The loco tendency in the sheep may be accounted for by the presence of the tape-worm, in part, as the presence of the bot-fly larvæ may account for the depraved appetite in the horse. The explanation in both cases is of course fargely theoretical, but there is certainly a sufficient basis of observed facts to make the hypothesis a reasonable one. Taking it for granted that the presence of intestinal parasites furnish a satisfactory explanation for certain animals contracting the habit, there are doubtless other causes that exert an influence. It must be borne in mind that a very large percentage of the animals in the section of the country we have under consideration procure their own subsistence directly from the wild range, and never have any prepared forage. On many ranges the pasturage becomes very short during the winter and spring, and hunger drives the half-famished creatures to eat whatever can be found of vegetable kind. This is more frequently the case since the ranges have become more completely occupied, and it is a fact that I have elsewhere referred to that the disease is now becoming known where it was unheard of a few years ago. The losses in many localities have grown to be a serious matter. I was told by different ranch men that the losses from this source absorbed all the profits there would otherwise be in the business. It is a difficult matter to give even an approximate estimate on the loss from this cause. The animals run at large on the plains, and frequently the first known evidence of the disease is the discovery of a carcass. No one can tell from what cause the animal died. Again, almost any ailment is likely to be classed as a case of loco. An animal is found to be sick, and of course shows more or less stupor and lack of activity. This is put down as a case of loco. Outside of all this, the fact is painfully apparent that a large number of animals eat the plant and that they are all out of condition; that the habit becomes fixed when once the taste is acquired, and that it uniformly leads to death if the animal is left to select his food on the range where the plant grows. It is to be presumed that the plant is possessed of some toxic property that has a specific effect on the nerve centers, and that these effects have a marked tendency to remain permanent,

I am not aware that the poison, if the plant possesses such a property, has ever been separated by analysis. I am unable to propose any very satisfactory remedy for the evil. So long as the animal runs at large where the plant grows, the evil is likely to continue. The practice of cutting down and destroying the plant has been proposed, and tried on some ranges. The results were reported on, favorably, by some sheep men who had tried the experiment. This is, of course, a tedious and somewhat expensive method of prevention, but is not impracticable, especially for sheep ranges, where the animals are not allowed to wander over a wide range of country. I am of the opinion that this method may be profitably employed in localities where the plant does not grow in great abundance. In districts where there are considerable areas, thickly covered, these could be inclosed by a wire fence and other parts of the range could be freed from the plants by cutting. Where the area is too great or the plant too abundant for the application of either of these methods, I see no alternative but to prevent the animals from ranging over such districts. The trouble is not a serious one on cultivated or inclosed farms. The plant is rarely seen growing except on the unbroken sod. It is a comparatively easy matter to exterminate it in cultivated fields. I have not seen it growing either on plowed land or in

the alfalfa fields, or among the cultivated forage plants. Again, if the causes leading to the formation of the loco habit are such as I have above observed, animals kept on farms would be less subject to these influences than those that are free on the range. Better care, feed, and attention would materially lessen the number falling into the habit.

The disease is not an incurable one, though the administration of drugs is not likely to be followed by very satisfactory results. No drug is likely to overcome the habit, and so long as the appetite and the ability to gratify it remain, the animal will continue to grow worse. Besides, it is practically impossible to medicate the halfwild animals on the open plain. If horses are taken from the range and placed on good, nourishing diet, they will make slow recovery. Favorable results are more likely to follow this method of treatment if the animal is young and the habit not of long standing. I have seen many cases of partial or total recovery from this course of treatment. Special attention should be given to the destruction of intestinal parasites. They are especially abundant and harmful in this region of the country, and I have no doubt but thousands of supposed cases of loco poisoning are the results alone of intestinal parasites.

The winter is not the most favorable season for conducting such investigation. During much of the time I was employed the ground was covered with snow, and the work was necessarily much interfered with.

My time would not allow entering upon any system of practical experimentation. I therefore confined myself entirely to collecting the testimony of those who have had years of experience in the livestock business, and to making such personal observations as I was able to make on animals that had voluntarily contracted the habit of loco-eating.

There is much need for careful experimental work in this field. A series of carefully arranged practical tests should be made, and the results fairly and faithfully recorded. It is a matter of serious import, especially to the breeders of sheep and horses on the open plains.

I trust the few observations I have been able to make may be followed by more extended and systematic effort, and that a practical solution of the trouble may be found for these enterprising stockmen of the West.

Respectfully submitted.

Hon. NORMAN J. COLMAN,

Commissioner of Agriculture.

M. STALKER.

DRESSED-MEAT TRAFFIC.

In June last the Assistant Secretary of State, Hon. James D. Porter, inclosed a dispatch from the American consul at Sydney, New South Wales, asking information relative to the dressed or "chilled meat industry" of this country, which the Government of New South Wales, through its proper officers, had requested. After a thorough investigation as to the extent and importance of this industry, the following reply to the questions propounded by the colonial government was forwarded to the Assistant Secretary of State:

SIR:

1. "By whom is the dressed-meat traffic conducted, and how?"

The dressed-meat traffic in the United States is conducted, almost exclusively, by firms employing large amounts of capital and many men in the work. The greater part of the slaughtering is done in Kansas City, Mo., in Omaha, Nebr., Saint Louis, Mo., and in Chicago, Ill. All of these places are centers to which the live stock of the Western and Middle States are sent for sale. The slaughter-houses are in nearly every instance near the stock-yards in which the animals to be slaughtered are received from the railroads, and are fed, watered, or sold, or are shipped to other markets. Firms engaged in the dressed-meat traffic employ professional buyers, who receive liberal salaries for their services, because of their ability to judge accurately of the weight and quality of the animals offered for sale. In all cases the cattle or sheep are weighed after purchase, the price per cental having been first agreed upon by the purchaser and the seller. The scales are so arranged that from 50 to 80 cattle may be weighed together upon the platform.

Within the last two years an abattoir has been established on the line of the Northern Pacific Railway, in Dakota, for the purpose of killing cattle grazed and fattened on the range near the abattoir, and of sending the beef from such cattle in refrigerator cars or vans to the markets of the Eastern States and of Great Britain and the Continent.

2. "In what part of the States is it carried on?"

Chiefly in eastern Kansas, in Nebraska, Missouri, and Illinois. At Kansas City large numbers of cattle, sheep, and swine are received from Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, the Indian Territory, Kansas, and Missouri. At Omaha live stock from Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Kansas, Dakota, and Nebraska are received. The stock so received is either sold to resident buyers, who slaughter in houses in the towns named, or who ship to other markets farther east, or the animals are forwarded to those other markets without having been sold. Agents of the refrigerator-car companies are called upon to furnish cars for a large number of western points, some of them in the heart of the range country, where "grass-fed" cattle are cheap and abundant. Cattle that could not endure the hardships of transportation " on the hoof" can be shipped in refrigerator-cars with profit.

3. "Is the business carried on to the same extent all the year round, or more at one season than at another; and if it varies, why?"

This business is carried on throughout every month in the year, and the traffic is extending each year into more distant parts, the extent of the trade depending largely upon the available supply of cattle, and not upon the condition of the weather; for heat or cold in the weather seems to have little effect upon the volume of the business. In the winter it is as necessary that the meats shall be kept from freezing as it is that they shall be protected from the effects of heat in summer. The receipts of dressed beef at New York City may be taken as showing fairly the volume of the traffic, month by month, throughout the year. Therefore the subjoined statement has been prepared. As the greater part of the traffic in dressed

beef has its origin in Chicago, another statement has been prepared showing the number of tons (2,000 pounds) sent to eastern markets by Chicago houses. That question, No. 18, "What proportion does the dead-meat trade now bear to the fatstock trade?" may be answered at the same time, in convenient form. I have included in that table shipments of cattle from Chicago to the same eastern markets for the same years.

Statement in tons of dressed beef received at New York between January 1, 1882, and December 31, 1885, by months.

In July of each year cattle from Texas and the plains of the Southwest generally begin to reach the great live-stock markets named above. The arrivals gradually increase in number until they are joined, in August and later, by cattle from the ranges of the States and Territories farther north. The receipts of the plains cattle continue until December, at which time the supply from the plains ceases; but its place is at once occupied in the market by the stock which has fattened on the grass of the pastures of the States east of the Missouri River.

Comparative statement of shipments of cattle and dressed beef from Chicago during the calendar years 1880 to 1885, inclusive.

4. "Do those engaged in it carry on the trade on their own account as dealers in stock or in meat, or as agents for others? If as agents, on what terms?"

This trade is in the control of firms using their own capital, owning the slaughterhouses, and, in some cases, the refrigerator-cars used in the business. These firms buy, kill, transport, and, in some places, even retail their meats to the consumers. At the termini they have built and own cold-storage rooms for their own uses, and

are in almost every way independent of all outside dealers or agents so far as concerns the buying of the cattle in the markets of the West, the selling to the actual consumer in the East, and all intermediate transactions necessary to the business, except the hauling of the refrigerator-cars over the railways. I do not intend to convey the idea that the firms in the business do sell large quantities of their meats to the consumer, for they do not; but they are able to do so at any time. They do not carry on any part of the business as agents for others.

5. "How are the stock awaiting slaughter kept?"

Beeves and sheep are bought from day to day at the stock-yards named above. The supply is scarcely ever below the needs of the shippers of dressed beef or mutton; therefore there is never any need of keeping a supply on hand for the next coming day. On arrival in the stock-yards, usually at an early hour in the morning, the stock receives hay. After eating the hay they receive water in practically unlimited quantities. They are then, if sold, weighed and delivered to the buyer. His assistants drive the stock to the slaughter-houses near, and there they are killed, very often almost immediately after arrival at the slaughter-houses."

6. "Describe the yards, slaughter-houses, and appurtenances, sending plans and lithographs, where procurable."

The stock-yards of Chicago are the largest in the world, and may be considered representative yards; but they are perhaps less perfectly planned than are those built at a comparatively recent date in Kansas City, Mo. The latter are upon the sandy bank of the Kaw River, to which the drainage of the yards flows through the sewers of ample size. These sewers underlie nearly every street in the yard, as their branches underlie nearly every alley. The area covered by the yards is divided by the streets and alleys into blocks as nearly square as the nature of the ground permits. The blocks are subdivided into pens of various sizes by fences, made of strong cedar posts, deeply planted in the earth, and of pine planks 2 inches thick firmly nailed to the posts. The planks are 6 inches wide, and are surmounted by a broad plank 2 inches thick, extending along the entire length of the fences, including the tops of the many gates. This broad plank thus affords a continuous walk from one part of the yards to any other part, high above the ground. At frequent intervals elevated bridges span the streets and alleys, that there may be no necessity for descending to the level of the ground. To each block a letter is given to distinguish it from the others; as "Block A," etc. To each pen in a block a number is given. When a lot of stock is put into a pen a record is made on the books of the company operating the yards; as, for illustration, if a car-load of cattle were received for John Doe, the record would read, "16 cattle, John Doe, lot 34, Block C." At convenient places in the yards scales are placed for weighing the stock. These scales are made expressly for this purpose, and are each covered by a substantially built house. Of their capacity something has been said above. The pens are floored with pine planks 4 inches thick, resting on other planks of like description. The latter rest in turn, upon their edges, upon plank lying on the ground. In cases where the pens are not so floored they are paved or macadamized. For cattle pens no roofs are provided, but pens for sheltering hogs and sheep are roofed. In every pen is a water-trough of ample size, filled, when desired, from cocks in pipes connecting with a water-tank. In Chicago the water supply is taken from a stand-pipe 100 feet in height and 7 feet in diameter. This pipe is filled by engines driving strong pumps taking their supply from artesian wells, some 1,200 to 1,300 feet deep. The stock-yards of Chicago cover 360 acres.

The slaughter-houses are of brick. From the stock pens at one side of the houses an inclined plane 7 or 8 feet wide extends to the height of the second floor. Between the side of the building and the drive-way mentioned is a row of pens, each 8 feet long and 4 feet wide. Each of these pens connects by a strong door with the drive-way, and at the other end is another door, covered by a plate of iron, through which door access can be had to the interior of the slaughter-house. In the operation of the business cattle are driven up the inclined plane to the level drive-way, and a gate closed behind them. The gates of the small pens are open, and the cattle naturally enter to escape the crowd and the shouting drivers behind. Only one animal, or at most two small beasts, can enter one of these pens at a time. The door is closed behind the animal, and it finds itself imprisoned in a space so small that it can not turn itself around, but must stand with its nose close to the iron-clad door beyond which are the butchers. Over the heads of the beasts awaiting death is a running board or walk 1 foot wide. Along this goes a man armed with a rifle carrying a ball 44-100 caliber, or with a piece of iron pipe three-fourths of an inch in diameter, in the end of which a lance-shaped point has been fastened. With the rifle placed within a few inches of the head of the animal the trigger is pulled, and the heavy ball tears its way down through the medulla oblongata and the brain; or if the lance is used, the spinal cord is severed by its sharp edge. Either way causes