Year Number of Beef Cattle
in Illinois
1856 1 169 855
1857 1 351 209
1858 1 422 249
1859 1 336 565
1860 1 425 978
1861 1 428 362
1862 1 603 946
1863 1 684 892
1864 1 370 783
1865 1 568 280
1866 1 435 769
1867 1 486 381
1868 1 520 963
1869 1 584 445
1870 1 578 015
1871 1 611 349
1872 1 684 029
1873 2 015 819
1874 2 042 327
1875 1 985 155
1876 1 857 301
1877 1 750 931
1878 1 775 401
1879 1 862 265
1880 1 998 788
1881 2 045 366
1882 2 012 902
1883 1 959 867
1884 1 997 927
1885 2 166 059
1886 2 337 074
1887 2 480 401
1888 2 465 288
1889 2 398 191
1890 2 095 595
1891 1 853 318
1892 1 615 405
1893 1 812 924
1894 1 798 417
1895 1 782 158
1896 1 626 171
1897 1 753 371
1898 1 802 061
1899 1 886 933
1900 2 009 598
1901 2 372 710
1902 2 409 772
1903 2 325 980
1904 2 535 954
1905 2 301 519
1906 2 203 108
1907 2 065 816
1908 1 892 118
1909 1 691 686
1910 1 512 055
1911 1 473 741
1912 1 258 293
1913 1 170 628
"In reviewing the cattle breeding and the cattle feeding situation
in Illinois in 1894, Mr. J. G. Imboden stated that the outlook was
not very encouraging. The question was, "Are the men who are feeding
the grain and fodder crop of the farm any worse off than those grain
farmers who are selling their grain on the market, or even the butcher,
the grocer, the boot and shoe dealer, or the drygoods merchant?" They
undoubtedly were not at that time. Competition was very close, profits
small, and unless a business man was satisfied with a small profit, his
competitor did the business. Such were the conditions that faced the
cattle breeders and feeders at that time.
"From 5 % to 10 % of the feeding value of the crops on Illinois farms
were left in the field; straw-stacks stood in the field where the
thresher left them; stover stood on the field after the corn was
husked, while on these same farms were stock that were shrinking from
exposure and lack of feed."
The outlook for the feeder was very discouraging, but much more so for
the breeder. There were no hopes for success for the breeder until the
feeder had two or three years of success in order to make a market for
the cattle that were bred. Strong efforts were being made to devise
some methods of feeding the farm products more economically and in such
a way as would mean more grain and better profits for the feeder.
"The cattle feeders of Illinois presumed that the time was nearing when
feeder cattle of the best grade for grazing and feeding purposes would
be hard to secure. While at that time there were plenty of cattle west
of the Mississippi river, in Illinois there was a scarcity of breeding
cattle to supply the demand. It was harder to buy a bunch of fifty
uniformly good steers, throughout central Illinois especially, than
it had been for fifteen years past. This was probably due to the fact
that feeders had quit raising their feeding cattle and the breeders had
changed from one breed to another in hopes of finding a breed that
would give them greater returns. Again, many breeders had become very
careless of the merits of the cattle on their farm."[8]
_The First Silo in Illinois_
"In 1881, Oatman Brothers, of Dundee, Illinois, built the first silo
in the state. At the eighth annual meeting of the Illinois State
Dairyman's Association, held at Dundee, Illinois, December 14-16, 1881,
Mr. E. J. Oatman read an article on "Silos and Ensilage.""
Mr. Oatman stated that some agricultural paper in Chicago had been
agitating the building of silos in Illinois and had tried to induce
him to build one. The stories that the paper told about the value of
ensilage as a feed sounded too good to be true. The idea of cutting
up green fodder, packing it away in a hole, and expecting to see it
come out in first class condition, in the dead of winter, seemed to be
impossible. A great many objections arose to such "cow kraut" as some
called it. It would heat, ferment, and rot; therefore it was a very
difficult matter to make people see its value as a feed.
Mr. Oatman, however, visited the farm of Messrs. Whitman and Burrell at
Little Falls, New York, on February 1, 1880, for the purpose of seeing
their silo and the condition of their ensilage. He made a thorough
investigation and thereupon became convinced that ensilage was a
success. He returned home to his farm at Dundee and made preparations
to build a silo. His first silo was 49 feet by 43 feet by 20 feet deep,
dug out into the ground. It was divided into three parts, all of
which were made of concrete.
After the silo was finished, Mr. Oatman proceeded to fill it, which
required thirteen days with a force of ten men, at a rate of about
twenty-three tons per day. After it was filled, stone was placed on
top, at the rate of about 150 pounds per square inch.
Mr. Oatman met with many discouragements with his new silo; the
community at large thought it was a very foolish idea. Some said that
if it did keep, the cattle would not eat it, and others still more
radical, even hoped that he would lose it all, and said that any man
who would try such a thing was crazy.
When the time came to open the silo, Mr. Oatman found that the silage
was all fresh and nice with the exception of a few inches on top. His
cattle took to it readily, and he found that it greatly increased the
milk production of his dairy herd.[9]
The use of ensilage as a feed for beef and milk production has become
so general in Illinois since the first silo was built in 1881 that
ensilage is now one of the staple feeds. While there are a few people
who still think that the use of ensilage in the production of beef
is a fad, practically every one agrees that it is economical in the
production of milk.
Ensilage is a roughage and not a concentrate, and its profitableness in
a fattening ration depends not so much upon its nutritive value as upon
its succulence and palatability, the steers' ability to consume large
quantities of it, and the fact that it makes possible the utilization
of all of the corn plant, a large proportion of which would be wasted.
Every year sees a more general adoption of ensilage as a roughage, and
with the inauguration of the present intensive system of baby beef
production, and where the baby beeves are raised on the farm on which
they are to be fed, ensilage is the most economical feed that can be
used in maintaining the breeding herd.
_The Chicago Market_
"The situation of Chicago in the great agricultural center of the
United States brought it into prominence at an early day as the center
of the live stock trade. This position it has never lost. However great
may be the development of other sections of the country, Chicago can
not fail to continue to be the leader in this class of business. Its
location as a railroad center and its position as a distributing point
is made secure by the steadiness of its growth and the magnitude of its
present operations. There is greater competition in this market than
in any other. The Chicago market is the purchasing point, not only for
the local packers, large and small, the exporters, and the speculators,
but also for a great number of smaller packing houses scattered over
the country, and for the feeders and breeders of the most fertile and
largest agricultural sections of the United States."[10]
Prior to the year of 1833, Chicago had no provisions to export, and as
late as 1836, an actual scarcity of food there created a panic among
the inhabitants.
The first shipment of cattle products from Chicago was made in 1841,
by Newbury and Dale on the schooner, Napoleon, bound for Detroit,
Michigan. This shipment consisted of 287 barrels of salted beef and 14
barrels of tallow.
_Statistics of Chicago 1837._
Population:
Whites 3989
Colored 160
Males 2579
Females 1570
------
Total 4149
Buildings:
Dwellings 398
Drygoods stores 29
Grocery stores 26
Hardware stores 5
Drug stores 3
Churches 5
There were two weekly papers published in Chicago at this time: The
American, a whig paper, and the Democrat.
The first market in the way of stock yards in Chicago was located on
the north branch of the Chicago river. These yards were used chiefly
for swine. In 1836, the first cattle yards were opened on a tract of
land near twenty-ninth street and Cottage Grove avenue. A few pens had
been erected here to accommodate the cattle trade. The first scales
for weighing livestock ever used in that country were used in these
yards.[11]
In 1855, there were two regular stock yards in Chicago; one, called
the Merrick Yard, is now known as the Sherman Yards, and the other was
called the Bullshead Yard. A great many eastern people came to Chicago
at this time to buy fat cattle to take back east. Most of the cattle
they bought were driven over into Indiana to Michigan City, to be
shipped on east. John L. Hancock was the only packer in Chicago at this
time. Ice was not used, and packing was done during the cool seasons of
the year.
One element of the success of Chicago as a market was the fact that
stock might be pastured without charge on the prairies near the city,
while the owners awaited favorable market conditions in the eastern
states. The cattle were herded on the open prairies just outside of the
city, and the buyers of Chicago rode out each day and bought the cattle
in such numbers as they needed.
In 1865, the growth of the livestock traffic had increased so rapidly
that the several railroad companies that centered in Chicago, together
with the managers of the stock yards already existing, combined for the
erection of the Union Stock Yards. These were opened for business on
Christmas day, 1865.[12]
"The meat industry of Chicago, from the purchase of the livestock to
the shipment of the meat, in either the fresh or the cured condition,
is carried on at the Union Stock Yards, which are located near the
outskirts of the city. The yards cover exactly a square mile of ground.
One-half of this area is covered with cattle pens, and the other half
by huge establishments of the packing houses. The pens are surrounded
by strong stockades, about shoulder high, and they are laid out in
blocks with streets and alleys, in much the same fashion as an ordinary
American town. The whole of this area, a half mile in width, and a mile
in length, is paved with red brick; and here we see the first notable
evidence of the effort to maintain the stock yards in a sanitary
condition.
"The brick paving makes it possible to thoroughly clean both pens and
streets, and this is done at regular and frequent intervals."[13]
"Whatever may have been the conditions in the past, it is a fact that
today the greatest care is exercised in the shipment and handling of
the stock from the time they leave the farms until they reach the
packing houses. The price that the animals will bring in the pens
depends upon the conditions they present under the eye of the buyer,
who represents the packing houses, and it is to the interest of the
farmers, the cattlemen, and the commission men, to whom the cattle are
consigned at the yards, that they shall receive the best food and the
most careful attention up to the very hour at which the sale is made.
They are shipped in special stock cars, in which they are carried as
expeditiously as possible to the stock yards, where they are unloaded
and driven to the pens. Here they are at once fed and watered, each pen
containing a feeding trough and a water trough, into which a stream of
fresh water is kept running.
"The cattlemen consign their stock to the various commission houses,
and for receiving and selling the stock, there is a charge of,
respectively, twenty-five cents and fifty cents a head. The purchase
of the cattle is made by buyers, of whom each of the packing houses
maintain a regular staff."
"About 1845, a bold editor left Buffalo, New York, then the greatest
lake part of the country, and bravely ventured as far into the rowdy
west as Chicago. Possibly the people here received him with generous
hospitality; perhaps they treated him with something even more warming
to the inner man; or it may be that as they filled him with solid chuck
and, perhaps, with less solid refreshments, they took occasion to
remark, with that modest and restrained hopefulness for which Chicago
people have justly received credit, that Chicago was destined to become
a town of some importance. Be that as it may, when that editor luckily
found himself once more safe within his sanctum, he gave vent to his
joy and overflowing gratitude by writing wild, enthusiastic predictions
concerning the future of the town, which was then aspiring to rise
above the rushes and wild rice of the Chicago river.
"Reckless of the opinion of the readers of his paper, perhaps trusting
to their ignorance of the conditions of the out of the way place, this
bold editor predicted that the day would come when Chicago would have
an elevator capacious enough to hold 25,000 bushels of grain, and that
in a single winter season, 10,000 cattle, and as many hogs, would be
slaughtered and packed there.
"Beef packing was the leading industry of Chicago at that time, but
no trustworthy statistics relating to the cattle traffic previous to
1851 have been preserved, and from 1851 until 1856 no account of the
receipts of cattle were kept. This was probably due to the fact that a
large number of those cattle that were brought to Chicago were held on
the open prairies until sold to butchers to supply the requirements for
local consumption. No accurate count of cattle disposed of in that way
could well be obtained."
Statistics of the receipts of cattle at the Chicago Union Stock Yards
from 1851 to 1913, inclusive, and the shipments from 1852 to 1884,
inclusive:
Year Receipts Shipments
1851 22 566[14]
1852 25 708[14] 77
1853 29 908[14] 2 657
1854 36 888[14] 11 221
1855 39 865[14] 8 253
1856 39 950 22 205
1857 48 524 25 502
1858 140 534 42 638
1859 111 694 37 584
1860 177 101 97 474
1861 204 579 124 146
1862 209 655 112 745
1863 300 622 187 048
1864 303 726 162 446
1865 333 362 301 637
1866 393 007 263 693
1867 329 188 203 580
1868 324 524 215 987
1869 403 102 294 717
1870 532 964 391 709
1871 543 050 401 927
1872 648 075 510 025
1873 761 428 574 181
1874 843 966 822 929
1875 920 843 696 534
1876 1 096 745 797 724
1877 1 033 151 703 402
1878 1 083 068 699 108
1879 1 215 732 726 903
1880 1 382 477 886 614
1881 1 498 550 938 712
1882 1 582 530 921 009
1883 1 878 944 966 758
1884 1 817 697 678 341
1885 1 905 518
1886 1 963 900
1887 2 382 008
1888 2 611 543
1889 3 023 281
1890 3 484 280
1891 3 250 359
1892 3 571 796
1893 3 133 406
1894 2 974 363
1895 2 588 558
1896 2 600 476
1897 2 554 924
1898 2 480 897
1899 2 514 446
1900 2 729 046
1901 3 031 396
1902 2 941 559
1903 3 432 486
1904 3 259 185
1905 3 410 469
1906 3 329 250
1907 3 305 314
1908 3 039 206
1909 2 929 805
1910 3 052 958
1911 2 931 831
1912 2 652 342
1913 2 513 074
1914
_St. Louis Stock Yards_
In April, 1869, a charter was granted by the state of Illinois to the
East St. Louis Stock Yards Company. This company was authorized to
issue stock to an amount not to exceed $200,000. The original charter
of the company, which later operated the National Stock Yards, fixed
the capital stock thereof at $1,000,000, which was, subsequently,
raised, by a vote of the stock holders, to an amount of $250,000,
to meet the requirements of the rapidly growing business. When the
National Stock Yards were completed, they were more convenient than
were any others of their kind in the country.