TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 539 



fiuenced by changing prices, does not result in the best distribution pos- 

 sible for bringing the largest gross returns and the highest average price 

 to the largest number of producers. Instead of being fed into the market 

 hopper in a fairly uniform stream, it is apt to be dumped in in chunks, 

 v/hich results in alternate periods of choking and racing of the machine, 

 and in very considerable inequality in returns to feeders, which is not 

 ascribable to better judgment on the part of the more fortunate, but almost 

 entirely to better luck. And so long as no other method of marketing the 

 available supplies than this is found, such conditions may be expected to 

 continue. 



A final conclusion is that so long as cattle feeders continue to act as 

 individuals and are unwilling to surrender some of their individual rights 

 of action to the good of the industry as a whole, such conditions must be 

 expected to mark the history of the industry in the future as they have in 

 the past. Some organization for a unified control of the production and 

 distribution of corn-fed cattle which shall include the greater part of the 

 producers of such cattle is the first requisite for Improved conditions in 

 the feeding industry. 



I will now show you some charts on which these figures are based: 



CHOICE CATTLE. 



Total, 92,047; heavy, 76,396; light, 15,651. 



No. Pet. 



Iowa 42,260 45.9 



Illinois 34,614 37.6 



Missouri 5,780 6.3 



Nebraska 3,154 3.4 



South Dakota 1,940 2.1 



Indiana 2,830 3.1 



Others 1,469 1.6 



(4.4 per cent of total; 14.1 per cent of steers.) 



Packers 51,703 56.2 



Shippers 34,926 37.9 



Others 5,418 5.9 



GOOD CATTLE. 

 Total, 171,758; heavy, 140,521; light, 31,257. 



Iowa 84,707 49.4 



Illinois 53,668 31.3 



Missouri 12,958 7.5 



Nebraska 5,076 2.9 



South Dakota 3,744 2.2 



Indiana 6,263 3.6 



Others 5,342 3.1 



(26.4 per cent of steers; 8.3 per cent of total.) 



Packers 97,240 56.6 



Shippers 54,292 31.6 



Others 20,226 11.8 



