38 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



custom thus establishing a practice that yields with reluctance to the 

 requirements of a new trade era. During the past 25 or 30 years the 

 volume of marketing in cattle, ho-gs and sheep has increased enormously; 

 methods of reducing live stock to meat product have changed radically; 

 new channels of trade, in and out, have been created and necessity for 

 new methods of doing business have arisen. From time to time, accord- 

 ing as the pressure of these mutations has been exerted sufficiently, the 

 trade has adapted" itself with more or less facility to the new, discarding 

 step by step the old; but in one essential feature conservation has held 

 its ground, and the off-day-market, as it is erroneously termed, still fails 

 to And favor with many shippers whose skepticism is unquestionably 

 adverse to their own interests. 



"Figures do not lie," although some wit has asserted that "Liars will 

 figure." 



Quoting official counts, the largest single day's receipts at the Chi- 

 cago yards were: Cattle 44445, hogs 74551 and sheep 59362, and, while 

 I must admit that I have experienced more unsatisfactory markets with 

 much smaller receipts, you will readily see that when such an enormous 

 number of animals are thrown into the stock yards during a single ses- 

 sion, proper handling is impossible. Railroad facilities fail, terminals 

 are congested and stock yard alleys and pens glutted. Commission men, 

 no matter how efficient their yard forces may be, or how complete their 

 arrangements for giving their patrons good service, fall down, to use 

 the vernacular; whereas, had the excess been shipped to arrive on the 

 so-called off-days it could have been handled more advantageously 

 by railroads, stock yards and commission men, shrinkage avoided, sale 

 and weighing facilitated, and loss avoided. It is the accomplishment of 

 this purpose to which both sides of the market buyers and sellers, are 

 strenuously exerting themselves. Even when united we are powerless 

 without the cooperation of the shipper, and it is with a confidence that 

 I may be able to make a few converts that I present this statement of 

 facts. 



Now, we all know that there is no philanthropy in business. I never 

 saw any of tbat abstract quality lying loose around the cattle market. 

 Buyers are in the saddle to take something off whenever the opportunity 

 presents itself, and they sleep with the same soundness that marks the 

 slumber of the average weasel. When they put something on it is with 

 reluctance, and simply because the man who is selling the cattle is able 

 to carry his point. From long experience I can assure you that this is 

 no easy task. Consequently, whenever gluts occur on the principal mar- 

 ket days, as they have a deplorable fashion of doing, the buyer promptly 

 swings his hammer — and not only that. There is an old adage, "Do not 

 buy a thing because it looks cheap, unless you need it." I believe all the 

 buyers in my circle of acquaintance keep this posted in their hats 

 because on such occasions many cattle do not even elicit bids. "Can't 

 use 'em" is the answer we get in response to our appeals to buyers to 

 look at the cattle. You know what that means: an over-supplied "mar- 

 ket. Who pays for it? The shipper of course. Killers, profiting by 



