50 Bulletin 85 



Los Angeles, although Kansas City ranked a fairly close second. A 

 noticeable feature of the livestock industry in 1916-1917 was the great 

 decline in the number of hogs held on farms in the Valley. This 

 decline was very largely due to the prevailing high prices for feed, 

 which made the hog business unprofitable for the time being. 



Small producers who annually turn out from 3 to 8 head of stock 

 find it necessary to dispose of their animals to local buyers. This stock 

 is either killed locally or consolidated by these buyers into carlots for 

 shipment to terminal markets. Large livestock shippers sell at prevail- 

 ing wholesale prices, while prices received by small producers are not 

 so well established. The small farmer is entirely dependent upon the 

 local buyer and prices paid by these buyers have varied greatly in the 

 past. Where producers are fairly well informed as to market con- 

 ditions, the local buyer often has been forced to pay a price which 

 vv^ould approximate true values. In other cases, the buyer has taken 

 advantage of the small producer and prices have ranged from 4 cents to 

 8 cents below prevailing market prices. As matters now stand the 

 small producer has no alternative. He has not sufficient quantity of 

 stock to ship to market and so finds it necessary to accept the best bid 

 he can secure from the local speculators. 



It will be seen that the real livestock problem in the Salt River 

 Valley is that of the small producer who cannot ship to market direct. 

 There is an evident remedy for this condition of affairs. The farmers' 

 co-operative livestock shipping association is the most elementary form 

 of co-operative agricultural effort. There are a sufficient number of 

 small livestock producers in certain restricted areas in the Salt River 

 Valley to make it feasible to organize community livestock shipping 

 associations in a few districts where there is a sufficient quantity of 

 stock to warrant the formation of such organizations. It is suggested 

 that community associations might be organized at Scottsdale, Glen- 

 dale, Fowler, and at some point centrally located on the South side, 

 possibly Gilbert or Chandler, These associations require no elaborate 

 financial arrangements and can readily be conducted by producers who 

 wish to secure true market values. There is nothing in the livestock 

 industry of the Valley which would make it necessary for these ship- 

 pers to modify materially the general plan of operation under which 

 such livestock shipping associations have been organized in the Middle 

 West.^ These associations have been very successful in the latter ter- 



1. U. S. Department of Agriculture. Farmers' Bulletin 718, Co-operative 

 Livestock Shipping Associations, by S. W. Doty and L. D. Hall, 1916. 



