FIFTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART IX. 611 



to the Chicago yards ever since 1872, and if that water was not 

 rotten, I don't ever want to see anything that is. But since 

 that time, I have found the water at the yards in good condi- 

 tion, and our cattle would drink it. 



Another thing: "We used to pay beef prices to get a load of 

 feeders from Omaha, but the last few years it has been three- 

 fourths, just the same as they give us from Chicago. I tliink 

 the association has done a big work for the farmers, and yet 

 men will say: "There is no use in my belonging to the Meat 

 Producers ' Association ; I never ship any cattle ; I sell grain. ' ' 

 It seems to me the two ought to go together. 



Mr. Swearingen: "We don't want to lose sight of the mem- 

 bership as well as this fee- we can't accomplish much of any- 

 thing with only a hundred members. 



The President: I know that Mr. Nichols is rather modest, 

 but I want to tell you who he is and what he is doing. He is 

 quite a heavy stockman and farmer up here in Marshall county, 

 and when we made our canvass of that county, he came right 

 across with a pledge for $50 — $10 a year for five years; and 

 he says that this organization doesn't owe him anything. 



Mr. Finch : I think it would be a rather uphill proposition 

 for any man to start out and solicit funds for this organiza- 

 tion ; but I have in mind a way that I think would work per- 

 fectly. Most eveiy banker is interested in the cattle feeding 

 business, and if we could get them to use their efforts in our be- 

 half in all these counties, it would help wonderfully. 



Will Drury : I wish to say that we haven 't the bankers nor 

 the stock buyers with us as a general proposition, for the reason 

 that they don't care what the rate is; they will collect the price 

 from the farmer. "When we were looking up unpaid pledges, we 

 found one bank that had twenty-five pledges that I think had 

 not even been presented to the men. It is not a very nice job 

 for the president, or any member of the association to go around 

 and ask for payment of a pledge that is three or four years 

 behind. 



Mr. Thompson : We find that the bankers are sufficiently in- 

 terested when things are not coming their way. The last ten 

 days, every banker of Greene county has been down here try- 

 ing to relieve us from the quarantine. Whenever you stop the 

 movement of thirty or forty thousand dollars a week, 'it means 

 something to the bankers. 



