586 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



farmers with serum. This situation not only caused much disappoint- 

 ment, but heavy losses to our hog raisers. In view of this unfortunate 

 situation, and in the- face of these heavy losses, I would urge that this 

 organization use every honorable means in its power to secure through 

 the incoming legislature an appropriation to be used for the manufacture 

 of serum in sufficient quantities to amply provide for all the needs of 

 our farmers. It occurs to me that any state which can appropriate two 

 million dollars to extend its capitol grounds, afad then employ a small 

 army of men to beautify and care for them, could certainly make a very 

 liberal appropriation with which to save, if possible, the hog crop of 

 our state, especially when the farmers pay it all back by purchasing the 

 serum; and I also believe that this state serum should be furnished at 

 actual cost, and that the state should not expect to make a profit out of 

 the business. 



It is gratifying to note the rapid increase in the past two years in the 

 number of head of cattle kept on the average Iowa farm. This increase 

 has been so perceptible that anyone circulating around among the farm- 

 ers can very readily detect it. If this good work goes on, our farmers will 

 scon be furnishing a large portion of our beef to feed the world. This is as 

 it. should be. The small feeder can better afford to raise his own cattle 

 than to go to the markets and buy them, because he is always placed at 

 a disadvantage in buying on the market, and usually pays much more 

 than his cattle are worth, while the scalper is the man who profits in 

 the deal. There has been a great* hue and cry about the shortage in 

 beef cattle, but if I mistake not, inside of the next three years the supply 

 will have entirely caught up with the demand, and beef cattle may be 

 selling so low that the farmers can not afford to feed them. Much has 

 been said about the high price of beef, but the facts are that in my investi- 

 gation I have found but few feeders who have made a fair profit on 

 their cattle, eliminating the gain on their hogs and the increased fertility 

 of their land incident to feeding cattle. I am quite sure that this is the 

 experience of a very large per cent of our Iowa feeders. The average 

 person knows but little about the cost of producing beef on the hoo£ 

 with the prevailing high prices of corn and other feedstuffs, and my 

 experience as a feeder has convinced me that under the conditions pre- 

 vailing for some years past, it costs from ten to eleven cents per pound 

 to produce this beef on the hoof. I am sure that the results of experi- 

 ments conducted by the different agricultural colleges will bear me out in 

 these conclusions. This, of course, does not include any allowance for 

 gain on hogs that follow, or for increased fertility of the soil. 



So it is easy to see that if anyone is making an unreasonable profit 

 out of the beef business, it is the packer, and not the man who feeds 

 the cattle; and I believe the public should realize that with corn selling 

 at from sixty to seventy-five cents per bushel, and other feedstuffs at 

 proportionately high prices, it is very expensive to produce corn-fed beef, 

 and that unless our feeders do receive high prices for their cattle, they 

 cannot afford to continue in the business. If the committee appointed by 

 congress, under the supervision of the Secretary of Agriculture, to investi- 



