ing and feeding the stock. In or near the stockyards are the slaughtering and packing plants, offices for the commission men and others who buy and sell the hogs, and banks for the prompt settlement of all transactions, which are entirely on a cash basis. The stockyards companies also provide employees necessary for the unloading, handling, feeding, watering, and weighing of stock, issue the weigh tickets, and clean the yards.

The hogs shipped to the central markets usually are sold through commission men or brokers. The shipper generally consigns his hogs to the commission man, to whom he frequently leaves all responsibility for the care and sale of the animals. The usual practice is to time the shipments to arrive at the stockyards early in the morning. When a carload of hogs arrives they are unloaded by the stockyards employees and driven to the pens of the commission man to whom they were consigned. Usually the pens have been previously bedded and the hogs are fed and given all the water they will drink. The commission man sorts them into uniform lots for the purpose of selling them to the best advantage. After the market opens he sells them to meat packers, slaughterers, feeders, breeders, order buyers, speculators, or exporters. If the hogs are bought by one of the packers adjacent to the yards, they are weighed and driven into the packer's holding pens, from which they are driven in lots as purchased to the slaughter floor. The commission man makes out a bill on the basis of the weight ticket, which the buyer indorses and returns to the commission man with a check or order attached. The commission man deducts the marketing expenses, including his commission, and forwards the balance to the shipper with an itemized statement of the entire transaction.

The buying and selling at the central markets is conducted in accordance with the rules of the livestock exchanges which have been organized in practically all important markets. The organization of livestock exchanges is similar to that of other exchanges. They have the usual officers and committees and regulations governing the conduct of business by members of the exchanges. They differ from other exchanges for dealing in agricultural products in that they are strictly cash or "spot" markets, there being no dealing in "futures" on livestock exchanges.

The exchanges at the different central markets are members of a national body known as the National Livestock Exchange. The various livestock exchanges are not organized for profit but to secure for the entire livestock and meat trade industry its legitimate advantages and to protect and promote the industry through collective action. In addition to prescribing regulations for the buying and selling of livestock, these organizations render great assistance in solving problems arising in connection with the marketing of meat animals in the United States.

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT INSPECTION

The supervision and inspection services of the United States Department of Agriculture cover every phase of the marketing and slaughtering of hogs at market centers. The packers and stockyards act of 1921 gives the Secretary of Agriculture authority to prohibit

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any unfair, unjustly discriminatory, or deceptive practices on the part of persons engaged in the buying and selling of livestock, but the meat-inspection service of the Department of Agriculture is of far more importance in the exporting of American pork products. The federal meat inspection service at the central yards is concerned with sanitation and public health and is regarded throughout the world as the standard of comparison. The Bureau of Animal Industry of the Department of Agriculture is entrusted with this work, and its livestock and meat inspectors and chemists examine interstate and foreign shipments of livestock and meats in all their stages of slaughtering, curing, canning, and other preparation. Export meat products are subjected to special inspection and the "export certificate" from an inspector of the United States Government is justly regarded as an instrument which has been of great assistance in our foreign sales of pork products.

The first inspections at the stockyards are made when the hogs are unloaded from the railroad cars upon arrival. This inspection is called the ante-mortem inspection, and no animal condemned at this time as having a disease rendering it unfit for human food can be slaughtered on the killing floors with the hogs that are passed as suitable for human consumption. The hogs condemned at the antemortem inspection are sent to a separate establishment, provided especially for that purpose, where they are killed and the products denatured for inedible purposes under the immediate supervision of a Government inspector.

During the slaughtering of hogs that have passed the first inspection there are further detailed and minute inspections covering every part of the carcass. The employees of the Bureau of Animal Industry that make these inspections are thoroughly trained for this particular kind of work. Their work has been made more effective because of the conscientious interest of the American meat-packing industry in the cleanliness and wholesomeness of its products. As a result of the combined efforts of the industry and the Government, foreign consumers who purchase American pork products not only obtain high quality products but also the best available insurance in the world against diseases communicable from livestock to man.

SLAUGHTERING HOGS

A detailed description of the equipment and methods employed in American packing plants in the slaughtering of hogs and the preparation of pork products is not essential to a discussion of export meat trade practices, yet it is of great importance to foreign purchasers of our pork products to know of the safeguards established by the combined efforts of the packing industry and the United States Government to make certain that all American hog products for the export trade are the most wholesome of their kind that can be obtained anywhere in the world. For bringing out more definitely the steps taken to obtain a product high in quality and uniform wholesomeness, the process of converting the live animals into food products will be sketched briefly.

Hogs that have been purchased by the different buyers of a packing plant are assembled in droves in the holding pens adjacent to the plant. They are rested before slaughter, since the meat is in better

condition if they are not killed until the excitement and fatigue caused by driving them through the yards has subsided. The hogs are weighed and then driven to the slaughter floor in lots as purchased by each packer buyer and killed separately as a check on the individual buyer's judgment. They enter the plant through an overhead runway into small pens conveniently located to a large rotating wheel. A chain is fastened around one of the hind legs of an animal and hooked into a link of this rotating wheel. The hog is lifted to the top of the wheel and slides off onto a pulley traveling along an overhead rail. The throat is cut and the hog is allowed to bleed thoroughly. It then goes into the "scald" for softening the superficial skin and loosening the hair. When this is completed the animal passes through a scraping and dehairing machine. After passing through this machine the carcass is again hoisted to the overhead rail and the cleaning is finished by hand.

After cleaning the first cutting operation is the partial severance of the head for the purpose of permitting the Government inspector to examine the lymph glands in the neck. Next the carcass is opened throughout its entire length and the viscera are removed and placed on a sterilized iron table which travels at the same rate and parallel to the carcass. While one inspector is examining the neck glands another is inspecting the viscera. If there is evidence of disease, the carcass is condemned and sent to the tank for manufacture of grease and fertilizer, or sent to the retaining room for careful and more deliberate examination and laboratory tests. In the case of carcasses that pass inspection, the slaughtering process is completed and the carcass is passed along to the cooling room, where it is kept from 36 to 42 hours and chilled to 34° F. It is here that the packer makes his selection of types for the home market and for export. From the cooler the hog carcass goes to the cutting room, where it is trimmed and divided into the various market cuts which are to be sold fresh, cured, or frozen, or manufactured into edible or nonedible by-products. During the cutting and curing the various parts are further examined by the Government inspectors to insure that only wholesome products are used for the preparation of human food. The Government's inspection service covers not only the products but also the sanitary conditions of plants, equipments, premises, and employees.

As indicative of the American meat packers' cooperative attitude toward sanitary regulations, many of them have established laundries and provide their employees with fresh outer clothing daily. Improvements in sanitary conditions are a part of their regular business programs and in the matter of cleanliness and sanitation there is keen competition among them. The net result of such policies and regulations is that the foreign consumer can buy from the United States only Government-inspected pork and pork products, and can feel certain that he is obtaining a highly desirable and safe food article.

FACILITIES IN THE UNITED STATES FOR DISTRIBUTION

A description of the facilities and methods employed to distribute meat products in the United States is germane to the subject of export meat trade practices to the extent that the same facilities

are utilized in the handling of exports. The important physical means for distributing meat products are cellars, coolers, and freezers for curing and storing at the packing centers; refrigerator cars for moving the products to the consuming centers; refrigerated branch houses (in the case of large companies) or private warehouses (in the case of small packers) for receiving them at the consuming centers; motor trucks for delivering products from the packing houses, branch houses, or warehouses to the retail meat shops where the actual consumers purchase their daily require

ments.

The application of mechanical refrigeration to the storage and transportation of meat products has lengthened the radius of the market. At the same time it has contributed to concentration and large-scale production in the packing industry. These new conditions called for new methods in marketing packing-house products and led to the development of the meat packers' own systems of branch houses. In the modern distribution system some meat packers make use also of "substocks" or secondary branch houses, storage and delivery houses, and hotel supply companies. Coldstorage facilities, particularly in the eastern seaboard cities, serve not only the branch-house system but are used also for storing for export. The branch houses themselves are always equipped with cold-storage facilities for holding stocks for a limited period, not only for their immediate trade but in many cases for shipment to the surrounding territory or for supplying the packers' car-route systems radiating from the cities in which the branches have been established. The branches, however, are primarily the wholesale markets of the meat packers who, more than any other group of manufacturers in this country, "do their own jobbing."

Prior to the development of refrigeration the meat trade of the United States was mostly in mess pork, beef, lard, and tallow. The packers had developed no special distribution system, but had confined their efforts to the manufacturing end of the business, leaving the distribution of their products to jobbers and speculators. Future trading in provisions on boards of trade began during the Civil War when the United States Government wished to buy large quantities of mess pork for later delivery. When trading in futures, known now as "hedging," came to be recognized as a means of eliminating some of the risk in packing and carrying pork products until there was a cash demand for them, boards of trade at Chicago and other packing centers became factors in the packinghouse system of distribution, standardized their operations, and put them on a permanent basis.

The Chicago Board of Trade is the most important board to the meat packers in distributing their products, serving the industry as a "clearing house or digestor for the trade" and as a barometer of values. Certain kinds of pork products for which the packer has no immediate market can be sold on the board of trade and passed into the brokerage channel for redistribution to the best advantage. Another important function of the board of trade is the maintenance of an inspection force to insure the uniform standards which the board members have adopted governing quality. weight, cut, trim, overage, and package of those kinds of hog proda ucts in which it deals. A certificate of the Chicago Board of Trade

inspectors is acceptable in every important market in the world where American pork products are sold. Furthermore, the board of trade aids the packer through its supervision of bonded “ regular" warehouses for the storage of packing-house products. The receipts issued by the board's registrars for products stored in these warehouses are negotiable instruments, and delivery of the hog products bought and sold on the board is effected by delivery of the registered warehouse receipts accompanied by the inspection certificates mentioned above.

These are briefly the important services performed by the Chicago Board of Trade for the meat-packing industry in the national and international distribution of meat products. From the standpoint of world trade in these commodities, probably no service of the Chicago board is more valuable than the daily information it collects and disseminates relative to the movement and prices of provisions in the world trade channels and the basis it provides for daily transactions in certain packing-house products.

FOREIGN MARKETS FOR AMERICAN PORK PRODUCTS

The export trade of the United States in pork products to Europe might well be subdivided, in the vernacular of the trade, into " U. K." and "Continental" business. The former, of course, refers to trade with the United Kingdom and the latter to trade with all continental western and central European countries.

Great Britain has been at times the leading foreign market for American pork products, of which hams, shoulders, bacon, and lard are the most important export items. American bacon is sold in England, but usually at prices several cents a pound under the Irish and Danish products. British demand is largely for a special type of lean bacon which is not readily produced from the present dominant type of American corn-fed hog. It can, however, be produced from hogs of the Large White, Yorkshire, or Tamworth type specially fed with dairy by-products, barley, and other grains in a balanced ration, which could be raised to advantage in those dairy sections readily accessible to packing houses having export facilities, without interfering with the production of the lard type of hog of the Corn Belt. Such a feeding system produces a slender-bodied type of hog with bacon "a little lean and a little fat."

Denmark is our largest competitor for the British bacon trade, having regained its pre-war position as principal supplier of this product in the English market. Its economic and geographical advantages, the utilization of the by-products of its dairy industry, and especially the short haul to the British market, place it in a better position to give not only the type but also the mild cure demanded. Canada and Ireland, with agricultural conditions somewhat resembling those of Denmark, are the only other important competitors in this trade at the present time. The other hog-raising sections of Europe formerly having a surplus are, with the possible exception of Holland, not yet in a position to influence the British market seriously, their present agricultural and financial conditions, among other things, militating against an extensive and sustained export trade in pork products. Brazil possibly may develop later into a competitor in the British market demanding serious consideration.