376 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



which it has been based, and the effectiveness with which it has been 

 carried out during the first year of the operation of the field stations 

 thruout the country. And especially is it hoped that, with this statement 

 before you, you will be able to formulate suggestions, recommendations 

 and constructive criticism, which I assure you will be most heartily wel- 

 comed and will receive the most serious consideration. 



The name of your organization, the Corn Belt Meat Producers' As- 

 sociation, immediately suggests that you are more than ordinarily alert 

 to the nature of your business — that you do not consider yourselves 

 merely as growers of and dealers in cattle, hogs and sheep, but also as 

 producers of a finished article or class of articles, in the marketing as 

 well as the production of which you are very vitally concerned. 



At your meeting here last January, Mr. Doty, of our Chicago office, 

 presented a statement of the plans then under consideration for a mar- 

 ket news service, covering various lines of information not previously 

 furnished, or at least not in as complete form as seemed to many stock- 

 men to be desirable. He also gave you a summary of the objects stated 

 m the act of congress authorizing this work. To bring these points freshly 

 to mind, I shall repeat in part his statements bearing upon the plans 

 then contemplated which we have since been working upon. 



"Funds which were appropriated by congress in the agricultural ap- 

 propriation bill for the present fiscal year for the purpose of starting 

 a market information service pertaining to live stock and meat, have 

 made it possible for the Department of Agriculture to furnish to stock- 

 men and to live stock markets, and meat trade, current information 

 along lines which organizations of stockmen have recognized as an urgent 

 need. It has been impossible to bring about any improvement in some 

 of the serious conditions which exist, such as violent fluctuations in mar- 

 ket prices, and very uneven receipts of live stock at the markets, owing 

 In part at least, to the lack of the necessary information. 



The item in the appropriation bill, which has been referred to, is 

 substantially as follows: 



"To enable the Secretary of Agriculture to gather from stockmen, 

 live stock associations, state live stock and agricultural boards, common 

 carriers, stock yards, commission firms, live stock exchanges slaugh- 

 tering and meat-packing companies, and others, information relative 

 to the number of different classes and grades of marketable live stock, 

 especially cattle, hogs and sheep, in the principal live stock feeding 

 districts and growing sections; prices, receipts and shipments of the 

 different classes and grades of cattle, ,hogs and sheep at live stock market 

 centers; prices of meats, and meat food products, and the amount of 

 such products in storage; to compilci and publish such information at 

 such frequent intervals as most effectively to guide producers, consumers 

 and distributors in the sale and purchase of live stock, meats and other 

 animal products, and to gather and publish any related information per- 

 taining to the marketing and distribution of live stock, meats and ani- 

 mal by-products." 



To carry out these plans, offices were opened about one year ago 

 at New York, Boston and Philadelphia, with experienced men in charge, 



