82 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



not perhaps Hope to attain these figures with respect to shipments to 

 Germany, in the event of treaty arrangements being effected, nor would 

 we expect to supply similar quality, yet that market would easily take 

 from 2500 to 3500 head per week, and of the quality so desirable for 

 the American farmer and feeder to find a market for; that is to say, 

 range cattle. Experience of those conversant with German requirements 

 vouches for the fulfillment of this prophecy. The opening of a market 

 like this is the only solution of the price problem. (The reason for the 

 demand for comparatively inferior cattle in Germany is explained by 

 the fact that the wage earner is not paid upon so high a scale as in Great 

 Britain, and is obliged to buy quality according to his means.) And just 

 at that point let me say that I had a conversation with one of the 

 greatest exporters of cattle, and he said if the proper arrangement had 

 been made with France, if the treaty of reciprocity with France which 

 was negotiated by Mr. Kasson, had been ratified, that he would have 

 shipped a thousand head a week of bulls to France, he would have made 

 a speciality of that particular kind of meat, because he said the French 

 market demands strong coarse boiling meat— ihey do not broil, they do 

 not roast, but they boil and stew meats from one end of that Republic to 

 the other; and he would have confined his exportations to bulls and stags, 

 the coarsest meat in our market. So with each nation, each has its 

 special requirements and habits in the way of meat. 



Were it not for the fact that during the past five years an unusual 

 condition prevailed throughout the world (i. e. the Boer was from 1899- 

 1902, the Boxer trouble in China. 1900, and the Russo-Japanese War, 

 1902 to 1905), the great bulk of the kind of cattle referred to above could 

 not have under any circumstances found a market in the States at any 

 of the packing points except at ruinous prices. These disturbances made 

 an unusual demand for canned and pickled beef, used as army supplies; 

 and thus it was that these light -cattle went into consumption in tins and 

 barrels. Figures from the statistical abstract — I have got them here at 

 the end in a table, but it is not necessary to weary you with reading 

 those — will bear out the truth of this statement. 



Never was the time so opportune for effecting a commercial treaty 

 with our German friends as the present. The situation in the Empire is 

 most critical, the country being involved in a meat famine, the porpor- 

 tions of which have astounded the whole world; records show us that 

 in one year 1200 horses were slaughtered alone in Berlin for food, and 

 79,000 were consumed, all told, in Prussia, for the same year. These 

 horses were not young animals, but old harness ridden beasts. In prac- 

 tically all cases discarded tramway horses. 



Misfortune makes us wondrous kind, and Germany in her distress prof- 

 fers a most kindly hand, which we must not fail to grasp at this time, for 

 out of her misfortune great benefits will come to us if we heed her. She 

 is a mighty power, and naturally proud, and unless we treat with her in 

 an equitable spirit she would prefer to suffer rather than be humiliated, 

 so it behooves the United States Government to act fairly, and that just 

 now. This is a matter of vital importance to the agricultural Interests 



