Special Trains i)i Agricultural Work. 413 



and finisli, used so well in j)i'c'\iuvis years, did not appear as a particu- 

 larly strong card. ' ' 



The Live Stock Reporter .of January 2, 1911, said editorially : "The 

 live stock trade for the year 1910 is now a matter of history. All the 

 worrisome details, the hurry and bustle, the pleasant things and those 

 not so agreeable, have gone down into the past. Reviewing the 1910 

 trade in a broad way, it may be classed as a lean year. High priced 

 grain curtailed feeding operations in the corn belt territory, and this 

 was reflected in the remarkable shortage in liogs and (until the closing 

 months of the year) a paucity of fat cattle and sheep. 



"Out of the northwest during the summer months came a great 

 movement of range cattle and sheep, forced to market because of the 

 great drouth. Had it not been for this fact the aggregate receipts of 

 all markets for the year would show up even much lighter than they 

 have done. 



"It has been a year of high average prices for live stock. Hogs 

 shot above the wonderful pinnacle of $11, the highest known since war 

 days. Sheep and lambs and fat cattle sold at exceptionally strong values 

 during the first half of the year until rangers came in and knocked the 

 props from under the markets. 



"Even after the summer declines set in, prices ruled relatively good 

 on cattle and hogs. Quarantine cattle marketed during 1910 generally 

 made good money for tlieir owners. Horses and mules have sold at 

 flgures way above normal. ' ' 



USING SPECIAL TRAINS IN AGRICULTURAL WORK. 



(W. L. Nelson.) 



]\Iore than 2,600 miles of railroad covered, lectures heard by 107,- 

 000 people, 17,000 bags of seed distributed — such, in brief, is the story 

 of a quartette of trains that have, since January 1, carried the gospel of 

 good seed and stock, also the seed and the stock, to ]\lissouri farmers. 

 Such is the Missouri-Macedonian method — the "show me" and help me 

 plan, made possible by the co-operation of railroad officials, the Missouri 

 Agricultural College and State Board of Agriculture. It is the belief of 

 these three agencies that much good may be accomplished by telling the 

 people how to grow better crops and to breed better stock; that more 

 good will follow if in addition to getting these truths before the people 

 they are also shown prize com or cattle, the result of scientific methods ; 

 and that the most good will come when the people are told what to do, 



