No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 755 



stuff manufactured or placed upon the market, but our law provides 

 it shall be done if it is done according to the laws of the Common- 

 wealth under a license that is granted by the Department of Agri- 

 culture, and the reason why I mention this is an indication that the 

 price of dairy products is holding up well. The people who manu- 

 facture these imitations of dairy products, of the genuine article that 

 is manufactured at the creamery and upon the farm, are wide-awake 

 people, and the}' would not be asking for a license to engage in this 

 business unless they felt there was a very good prospect before 

 them. 



With regard to the live stock interests,, it seems to me that the 

 prospects for the future are very flattering indeed. The year just 

 closed has been one of the best years that I have known during the 

 period since the period immediately after the Civil War. The live 

 stock sold in the City of Chicago, and what is done in Chicago, by the 

 way, is a very good index to what is done throughout the whole 

 countrv so far as the live stock is concerned, the live stock that were 

 sold in Chicago during the last year were sold for $36,400,000 more 

 than was received for live stock during the year preceding. That is 

 certainly a very large increase. The demand for horses, especially, 

 has been remarkably good during the last year. Those of you who 

 have been watching the market have not failed to see that good 

 driving horses, horses well mated, well-bred, well-trained, that have 

 good style and good action, have been selling readily from eight to 

 twelve hundred dollars per pair, and the same improvement is true 

 of heavy draft horses. So that those of you who are engaged in 

 raising horses have a very excellent prospect before you. And the 

 same is true of the cattle trade. You have noticed, perhaps, as I 

 have, that there is an inclination in recent years towards the pur- 

 chase in our market of what is called baby beef, cattle being slaught- 

 ered younger than they used to be, and this perhaps is owing to the 

 fact that we have a larger population in our cities who want a good 

 home dressed beef that is reasonably tender, without knowing that 

 it has been placed in cold storage and ripened for two or three 

 months before it has been placed upon the market. This, no doubt, 

 is one reason why we have this demand. Another reason, perhaps, 

 is found in the fact that they have come to understand better than 

 they have done in the past, that the most money is made in feeding 

 stock, by getting it into the market just as early as possible. The 

 young animals are growing, you know, much more rapidly, and much 

 more weight can be made with the same amount of feed given to a 

 young animal than given to one that is older. You take, for ex- 

 ample, a calf that weighs 100 pounds at the beginning, by careful at- 

 tention and proper feeding the weight can be increased from eight 

 to ten hundred pounds the first year. Every one knows if that calf 

 goes beyond 400 pounds in the increase in weight of the animal for 

 the second year, it is doing very well. We all know that much larger 

 amount of feed is consumed the second year than the first. The 

 older the animal gets, until the period of growth is ended, the less 

 will be the increase in weight, and after the growth of the animal 

 has been comjdeted the gain will be still less. So the feeders have 

 come to understand that if they want to get a good price they must 

 get their stock into the market just as early as possible. 



Now, the point to which I wish to come is, that these ends can be 



