SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 431 



the margins between prices of stock on foot and prices of the finished 

 products and by-products. It is proposed to include retail as well as 

 wholesale meat prices in the reports as soon as the necessary organiza- 

 tion can be built up. 



After carefully considering various plans for handling reports on 

 live stock shipments, it was decided to adopt an arrangement similar 

 to one which has been in operation by the Office of Markets during the 

 past year, pertaining to certain fruit and vegetable crops. The plan 

 provides for a telegraphic report to the Washington office from the 

 division superintendents of all railroads, showing the number of cars 

 of the products loaded during the preceding twenty-four hours, and their 

 destinations. This service has been conducted with marked success, and 

 its extension to include cattle, hogs and sheep is considered entirely 

 feasible, although the magnitude of the undertaking is apparent. Since 

 January 1st, we have been receiving telegraphic reports on live stock, 

 and are making every effort to develop the service in such a way as to 

 enable stock men to time their shipments to market more advantageous- 

 ly. It is too early as yet to describe certain details which are now being 

 worked out, but we have reason to believe that within a short time it 

 will be possible to remedy the present extremely irregular market runs 

 of stock materially. During the experimental stage of this feature of the 

 project, it is particularly important that we keep in close touch with the 

 stock men, in order to develop the plan along lines which will be of 

 practical use to themi. 



Plans are also being made for monthly reports, showing in summary 

 form the receipts and shipments of live stock at all the stock yards 

 centers in the United States (of which there are nearly sixty of con- 

 siderable importance); the shipments of stockers and feeders, both 

 from the markets and from the stock-grazing sections to feeding dis- 

 tricts; statistics compiled by the Bureau of Crop Estimates, showing 

 the estimated number of marketable cattle, sheep and hogs in each 

 county of the United States, as compared with the normal; and other 

 information of special interest to stock men, to the live stock markets, 

 and to the meat trade. 



The plans which have been adopted and those which are contemplat- 

 ed, relative to these market reports, are altogether along lines which are 

 not already being published or otherwise distributed by existing market 

 agencies. It is our purpose to handle the information in such a form 

 and on such a time schedule that the daily and weekly live stock mar- 

 ket papers will recognize its value and give it a prominent place in their 

 pages, in the same way that the weather reports are used by the daily 

 press. 



It will be evident to everyone who is acciuainted with live stock mar- 

 keting conditions, that the proposed news service will have to be de- 

 veloped gradually, in order to place it on a satisfactory foundation and 

 build up an efficient organization. It is not to be expected, either, that 

 the information will be generally appreciated or used until it has been 

 thoroughly tried out and its value demonstrated. Organizations such 



