FIFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 369 



WANTS A TWO DOLLAR SPREAD IN PRICE. 



Charles Escher, Sr , Carroll County, Iowa, in Breeders'' Gazette. 



It is amusing to read the articles as to the outcome on the many bunches 

 of feeding cattle recently sold. It reminds me of the man who went to town 

 with an old wagon still good enough to last several years for all kinds of 

 work, but he traded it off for a new one and paid enough to boot to buy a 

 new one. Nevertheless on his way home he was so jubilant over his bargain 

 that he told everybody how he fixed the fellow in town with his old wagon. 

 Now this is correct as I met the man myself. And when I read some of these 

 articles on cattle feeding, as also the results, it reminds me very much of the 

 wagon deal. 



It must be remembered that lots of these cattle are bought on the market 

 and then shipped home at a cost of from ten to twenty-five cents per hundred- 

 weight, which must be considered when shipping again for what we will call the 

 final decision. As long as the man is in his feed lot with his cattle his talk 

 as a rule is pretty loud, but when he gets to the stock yards it is seldom that 

 the cattle are brought back. 



I have handled cattle for the last thirty-five or forty years and know for a 

 fact that the feeders of the State of Iowa for the last two years have lost 

 millions of money. Where the cattle are bought on the market and shipped 

 again the freight is from forty to sixty cents any way. When the shrinkage 

 both times is considered, with corn from thirty-five to fifty cents a bushel, 

 who can feed and hold his own with one dollarof a margin per hundred-weight 

 as we have been compelled to take for our stuff for the last two years'? I know 

 of cattle which were sold for less per one hundred pounds than they were 

 bought for as feeders, and all the man had in the deal was what the cattle 

 gained and out of which two freights had to be deducted. Had this man 

 not been a number one feeder his deal would have been lots worse than the 

 wagon deal. But as he was a well-to-do farmer and had a good bank back 

 of him he congratulated himself on his good credit. Now this matter comes 

 mighty near home. 



I was only too glad I had nothing to show at the International last fall as 

 it was only too clear to me that the 126 cars of show cattle made a loss of 

 $50,000. Now this is a large sum of money to lose, but I am just as certain 

 about my assertion in this as can be, and those who had cattle at the Inter- 

 national will bear me out in this. 



In my feeding operations for thirty-five years I have learned that a feeder 

 under present circumstances must have with freight counted $2 of a margin* 

 per hundred- weight to make a living; otherwise he is the loser. 



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