180 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Now, there is tliis 1o l)e said about those reports and this mat- 

 ter which Mr. Downing- is dealing witli. These reports do not 

 give just the information he is trying to get. Comparatively 

 few of them give us tlie weight of the cattle at the time of load- 

 ing, and consequently they don't give us the amount of slirink. 

 For my part, it seems to me our members ought to help Mr. 

 Downing in this mattei-. We have never found that exact, ti'uth- 

 ful information has hurt us ; in fact, our fights have been won 

 by bringing out the truth with refei'enee to the live stock busi- 

 ness and the conditions of shipment ; and if by helping ^Mr. 

 Downing* we can accumulate a mass of information which will be 

 taken as absolutely correct, because of 1)eing taken by govern- 

 ment employes, there is evidence which we can introduce that will 

 be taken at its face value by the Interstate Commerce Commission 

 or any other commission. 



Mr. Hussey: I have one of those circulars sent me every year 

 — and I intend every time I take in a shipment to take one along 

 with me, but the day that I ship we are always so busy that we 

 forget it. 



President Sykes: I brought out in my annual report yester- 

 day that if you forgot to take those reports with you, you always 

 haA^e a memorandum hook in your pocket, and all you have to 

 do is to note down those things in that book, and when you get 

 home copy it from the diary on your report, sign it, put the 

 proper dates of the shipment on it, and mail it to the secretary of 

 your association. 



It seems that the imprcssioii has gotten into the minds of some 

 of our people that if they have a good run, we don't want tliat 

 kind of a report. AVe ccM-tainly vvant it just as much as if they 

 gave you a rotten run ; because it shows what the railroads can 

 do. If they make a run from western Iowa to Chicago in twenty- 

 six hours, it shows that they can do it. Probably your next i-e- 

 port will show that they took thirty-six or forty-eight hours to 

 make the same run. 



Mr. Murray: I don't want to give the impression by my re- 

 marks that I want to throw a damper on Mr. Downing 's work. 

 There is bound to be a shrink; you can't get past that. I think 

 the first thing to be ascertained is how those cattle are fed prior 

 to shipment. Every cattleman knows that there is quite a dif- 

 ference in preparing cattle before they are put on the cars, and 

 some people live eight or ten niih's fi-om the shijiping point, and 



