116 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



liable custom of the day for the shipper or attendant in charge to carry 

 a lantern and an instrument called a "prod pole." It consisted of a 

 long, heavy handle, nearly six feet long, with a sharp iron or steel spike 

 extending from one end half an inch or more, which was sharpened to a 

 point. These instruments of torture could be purchased at various places, 

 where they were kept in stock. It was used to prod the other animals 

 in the car aside while a steer that was down could be encouraged by the 

 sharp point to take his place in the ranks. This prod was also equipped 

 with a flat-headed screw driven into it near the business end and extend- 

 ing out a short space at right angles from the pole. When the "down" 

 steer refused to respond to numerous jabs and such language as is gen- 

 erally employed on like occasions, the end of the pole with the attached 

 screw was then engaged with the matted end of his tail, and by sundry 

 twists and turns or pulls on the pole, a severe strain could be supplied 

 to this sensitive organ. If the prostrate steer had life or strength enough 

 in him to rise, this treatment would bring about the desired results, but 

 he still continued in an indifferent attitude, he was generally considered 

 in bad condition and a dead steer when the market was reached. Strong 

 animals, evenly matched, might stand the journey without any of them 

 being trampled or injured, beyond bruises received during loading and 

 bumping against the sides of the car enroute, providing they were not 

 kept too long under the strain of overloading, for the journey was always 

 a crucial test of keeping on their feet. Under these conditions shippers 

 went out with their prod poles and lanterns at almost every stop to keep 

 the animals on their feet; then also hundreds of lanterns and poles were 

 brought into the offices of commission men at the end of the journey. As 

 late as 1873 unloading gangs at markets invariably carried ropes for the 

 purpose of dragging the dead and crippled cattle from the cars. The 

 principal buyers had men stationed regularly at the scales to watch for 

 broken-ribbed cattle, which were frequently found, and $5.00 per head was 

 deducted from the purchase price of every such steer, buyers sometimes 

 refusing to take them at that price. Overloading was intensified by the 

 high prices paid for dead animals, ie., those killed enroute to market, and 

 sometimes they brought almost as much as the live ones. In 1869 hogs 

 taken from the cars dead sold regularly at $4.50 to $5.00 per 100 pounds. 

 The railroad pens at places where stock was unloaded or loaded were, as 

 a rule, not sheltered and much of the time knee deep in mud and filth, 

 making it impossible for the animals to lie down and rest and the condi- 

 tions were frequently such that to force stock into them was positively 

 inhuman. 



Such in brief is the resume of the transportation of live stock previous 

 to the introduction of the federal law requiring that live stock to market 

 should be unloaded and given five hours of rest, with feed and water, after 

 they have been on the cars continuously for twenty-eight hours. And 

 with your indulgence I should like to give just a little of the history con- 

 nected with securing the passage of that law, taken from an address from 

 Dr. A. D. Melvin, chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry, of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, before a stockmen's meeting at Casper, Wyoming. 



