There are about 100,000,000 people in the United States to be fed three times a day. Most of these have some kind of meat on their tables at each meal. Moreover, the people of Europe look to our country to furnish them a goodly supply of meat each year. During the month of June, 1915, we exported 48,750,000 pounds of fresh beef alone. Add to this bacon and hams and you will understand what a great industry meat packing is. Kansas City, Omaha, St. Louis, Buffalo, Indianapolis, and many other cities have large packing establishments. But most of the slaughtering and packing houses are in our Middle Western states. Chicago has by far the greatest packing houses in the world. This is because Chicago is the greatest railroad center west of the Alleghanies and the largest city. It is also in the heart of a great grain country where millions of cattle and hogs

are raised. Before refrigerator cars came into use slaughtering had to be done near each city or village if fresh meat was to be had. At that time live cattle and hogs were shipped by baot or rail hundreds of miles. It is no longer necessary to do this. The animals are slaughtered in cities fairly near where they are raised. Meats out on ice will keep for a long time. Refrigerator cars and boats carry thousands of pounds of meat in rooms kept at a low temperature by ice. The picture here shows one of the processes of preparing meat for market in a large Chicago packing house. The men are busy trimming the skin from hams and rounding the pieces. These hams will be sold at a fancy price for they are the choice product of the firm. Where does your local butcher get his meat?