THERE was a time, within the memory of men still active in the cattle business, when the capacity and demand of the local butcher shop measured the demand for fat stock and fixed the price as well. On driving his cattle to the village, or negotiating for their sale, it was not uncommon for the stockman to be met with the news that a neighbor had got ahead of him and glutted the market with two or three or more meat animals. No matter how good the offerings, there was no present market at any price. This was the condition of the livestock business in the “good old days” before the establishing of the great packing centers; before the development of economical systems of slaughtering, saving the waste, and distributing dressed beef quickly and continuously to the remotest parts of the country. No stockman now considers the demand of the local butcher as a serious factor in making or breaking the market for his cattle. If he is feeding a carload or more, he has an approximate date set for the finishing of his feed. By keeping in close touch with the supply of cattle in the country, their movement and the trend of prices, he chooses what appears to be the most favorable day and ships them to the market. Even if he is feeding only a few head, the disposal of them is not dependent upon local demand. He may double-up with his neighbors to make up a car. He may belong to a shipping association that makes a business of collecting small lots into carloads for direct shipment, and although he sells to the local stock buyer, his knowledge of what his cattle are worth at the central markets enables him to secure a fair price. So it has come about that world demand determines prices and governs buying activities in every town and village where livestock is purchased. For local butchers everywhere are governed by prices at the central markets. The truth is that the most successful butchers no longer do their own killing, but buy their beef from packers’ branch houses in the larger cities and towns or from “route cars” running from packing plants or branch houses into the smaller communities. In doing this they get better beef at lower cost than by local slaughtering, and they can serve their customers with a safer and more satisfactory article because the animal is killed and the meat prepared under the stringent government inspection and sanitary regulations that are practiced only in the larger establishments. This insures absolute freedom from diseased conditions and careless handling.