16 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF' AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. Ames: I am quite a man to think the old cow and pail 

 do pretty well yet. I want to qualify this feeder business. I 

 believe that the hand-separator is going to be a great help to the 

 Iowa farmer ; I want to say further that I have got one of my 

 own. I do not milk many cows, yet I have enough that the boys 

 pay for their own way. I milk my registered cows, many of 

 them. 



I believe a man as a feeder ought to have judgment enough 

 to go into a district where they raise, the right kind of cattle and 

 get them for his feed yard. I do not think it is compulsory for a 

 man to buy in a dairy district. With the use of the hand- 

 separator, I believe it is possible to milk a cow in Iowa and 

 make a succees of it. 



Mr. Packard: As to this point, about the lack of competi- 

 tion in the Chicago market, I would like to ask, if any one 

 knows if the investigation that has been carried on in reference 

 to that, whether there has been found any ground which the 

 Government can base an action against the packers and break 

 the combine? 



Mr. Drury: I happened to be in the yards yesterday and I 

 was told by a very prominent commission man there, who was 

 told by the head inspector there now and who has been there 

 for the last six months, that they had positive evidence that the 

 prices were fixed every day, and that they had positive evidence 

 that each packer had his exact district to work in. He says, we 

 have four big packers on the market; one individual packer 

 buys the keepers; the next one, the canners; another gets the 

 fat cows, and the other the choice heifers. Therein, he says, all 

 competition is eliminated. The next day it is reversed and we 

 have one of the Big Four buying one kind of cattle, and so on 

 again. Where is the competition coming in? 



Mr. Ames: I do not believe anybody knows any more than 

 hearsay, in my opinion, as to this Government inspection. If 

 it is going to be a secret investigation, it is very likely to be so. 

 I myself have great doubts of the matter, in the way they have 

 gone at it. 



These are however the facts, as Mr. Drury states it, as we all 

 know. 



The President : We have with us today a swine breeder of 

 thirty years' experience, who is now a member of the executive 

 committee of the International Stock Show. Mr. A. J. Lovejoy, 



