120 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



of meat per year, equal to 800,000 head of cattle annually. The stock yards 

 now have a daily capacity of 75,000 cattle, 300,000 hogs, 125,000 sheep and 

 6.000 horses. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Wallace: I want to say that his speakiug of the early .1 riv- 

 ing of cattle reminded me of old times, because I happened to live 

 on a road over which a great many of these cattle went. I can re- 

 member the long-horned steers and the big lumps on their jaws, 

 which I now recognize as actinomycosis. Another thing which was 

 amusing was that about half an hour before sundown the hogs all 

 commenced to squeal. 



Mr. ITood: As a boy I lived between Westchester and Phila- 

 delphia, and a few of those droves must have come through after 

 war times. We were Avithin eight or ten miles of the Philadelphia 

 stockyards, and they used to pasture the stock in our neighborhood ; 

 and I still remember some of those big roan steers that came from 

 Kentucky. I also saw one or two droves of turkeys come through. 



Mr. Smith : There is another question that is a live one to 

 stockshippers. There has been a great improvement in the treat- 

 ment of caretakers of stock in my day, and I am still a young man ; 

 but there is a chance for great improvement. I have had some 

 experience this summer, and I believe that every shipper has "the 

 same, and it is one of the things that ought to be corrected. AVhen 

 a caretaker comes to a division station, unless he has been over the 

 road a good many times, he naturally inquires of the ti'ainmen 

 where he shall go to get the next way-car. The brakeman on the 

 train on the division he is riding on doesn't know a thing about it, 

 nor does the conductor. They tell him where to go to inquire. 

 He goes to the yardmaster's office, and is told that his Avay-car is. 

 "right over there, yonder — just over the other side; go over and 

 get in." I am just telling my experiences occasionally for the last 

 thirty years. My last experience was one of leading about ten 

 men to find that car, and I'll bet we traveled three miles. We got 

 to it twice, but it was when it was in motion; it was just being 

 pulled back and forth. A neighbor of mine who was tr^ving to keep 

 up with me (he wasn't any older than I, but he Avasn't as good a 

 runner) stubbed his toe, fell down and cut a great gash in his^face. 

 Other things that this association has taken hold of have been 

 remedied, and I believe if you people on the other roads have the 

 same experience that we have on the Burlington, if it were talked 



