FIFTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART IX. 585 



It is needless to say that if this advance is made the Iowa farmer and 

 feeder will have it to pay on all stock shipped east from Chicago on the 

 hoof, and that the packers will also make them pay the advance on dressed 

 meats and packing house products by buying their live stock a little 

 lower. 



From the evidence produced in the recent five per cent advance rate 

 case, it does not appear that the railroads are nearly so hard pushed as 

 they would like to have the people believe. It was clearly shown in the 

 case of the Corn Belt Meat Producers before the Interstate Commerce 

 Commission, some years ago, that the live stock business per ton mile 

 was the most remunerative traffic carried by the railroads; and in view 

 of the present unprofitable feeding business, with the scourge of hog 

 cholera and the foot and mouth disease, it would seem that it is a very poor 

 time to impose an. extra burden of this soi't on the stockmen of the Middle 

 West. 



This organization at once filed a protest with the Interstate Commerce 

 Commission, and asked for a suspension of the advances until their 

 reasonableness could be passed upon by the commission; and I would 

 recommend that we prepare to make a most vigorous fight against any 

 advance in the rates on live stock and dressed meats; also that we join 

 with the Co-operative Grain Dealers' Association in opposing the pro- 

 posed increase in grain rates from Iowa points to Chicago, which have 

 always been recognized as abnormally high. 



From some apparently unknown source has come the most violent out- 

 break of foot and mouth disease this country has ever known. This 

 scourge has cost the feeding and dairy interests of our country millions 

 of dollars, and the end is not yet, for no one can tell where or when this 

 thing will end. So, realizing this very serious situation, and the tre- 

 mendous losses that would follow in the wake of this dread disease, I 

 would recommend that the Corn Belt Meat Producers' Association take 

 some vigorous action to secure, through congress, a very liberal appropria- 

 tion for the Department of Animal Husbandry, that it may in the future 

 have ample funds with which to combat this dangerous disease. I am 

 informed that during the present siege, the department has been greatly 

 handicapped in its work on account of not having sufficient funds. 



Another important matter to which I wish to call your attention at this 

 time is the hog cholera epidemic, which has infested our Iowa feed lots 

 for the past three years. Under existing conditions, there seems to be 

 but one way to protect the hog raisers of Iowa from the ravages of this 

 terrible disease, namely, to vaccinate while the hogs are well; and even 

 then it does not always prove a sure preventive, as some of the commer- 

 cial serum is weak and inferior in strength. The last general assembly 

 made a small appropriation for the establishment of a serum laboratory 

 at Ames, and its operation for two years. The money appropriated proved 

 to be entirely inadequate for the w^ork and the needs of the farmers, so 

 that the department at Ames could furnish but a small per cent of our 



