The Union Pacific system, e.g., carried 198,477 tons of cattle in 1886.

Report of the Directors of the Union Pacific Railway Company to the Stockholders for the Year Ending December 31, 1886, (New York, 1887), 132.

In 1889, following the collapse of the range cattle industry, the system carried 248,522 tons of cattle.

Report of the Directors of the Union Pacific Railway Company to the Stockholders for the Year Ending December 31, 1889, (New York, 1890), 116.

For 1891 the figure was 400,042 tons; for 1892, it was 424,095 tons.

Report of the Directors of the Union Pacific Railway Company to the Stockholders for the Year Ending December 31, 1892, (New York, 1893), 31.

It fell off to 393,795 tons in 1893.

Report of the Directors of the Union Pacific Railway Company to the Stockholders for the Year Ending December 31, 1892, (New York, 1893), 40.

Similarly the total tonnage for animal shipments, 80-90 percent of which were cattle, on the entire length of the roads traveling through Dakota Territory increased from 1,146,466 tons in 1886 to 1,477,740 tons in 1889.

Second Annual Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners of the Territory of Dakota for the Year Ending June 30, 1886, (Grand Forks: Plaindealer Book and Job Room, 1886), 129-30; Report of the Railroad Commissioners of the Territory of Dakota, 1889, 65-66.

In Kansas, where the movement of pigs would have formed a larger proportion than in the Dakotas, the tonnage of animals increased from 1,109,459 in 1883 to 3,454,380 in 1891 on the lines traversing Kansas.

First Annual Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners for the Year Ending December 31, 1883, State of Kansas (Topeka: Kansas Publishing House, 1884), 40-41; Ninth Annual Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners, State of Kansas for the Year Ending December 1, 1891, (Topeka: Edwin H. Snow, 1892), 278-81.

In Nebraska, which like Kansas produced pigs as well as cattle, livestock shipments increased on the entire length of the roads passing through the state, from 1,246,809 tons in 1886-87 to 1,491,131 tons in 1888-89. These figures were compiled from the reports of the state railroad commissions in Kansas and the Dakotas and Nebraska.

First Annual Report of the Board of Transportation for the Year Ending June 30, 1887, State of Nebraska (Lincoln: Journal Company, 1888), 39-40; Third Annual Report of the Board of Transportation for the Year Ending June 30, 1889, State of Nebraska (Omaha: Henry Gibson, 1889), 84-87.

Even when a state, such as Kansas, had more pigs than cattle, railroad shipments carried a greater tonnage of cattle since normal counts measured two cattle to a ton and ten pigs to a ton.