222 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



That is all, Mr. President, that I have to suggest in reference to 

 this resolution. I trust there will be a general expression. 



Mr. Simpson : Do I understand you to say that you want only 

 reports from the packers in Iowa of the stock killed in Iowa ? 



Mr. Packard: This resolution requires Iowa packers. 



Mr. Simpson : Do you think that will give you the information 

 you want? 



Mr. Packard : I thought the other packers could not separate 

 their stock and office records, but I should understand that the 

 secretary in eliciting this information would be free to go not only 

 to the veterinarians and packers in the state, but to go to any other 

 source in the end that all information on the number and locality 

 of the disease may be known to the State Department of Agricul- 

 ture, and if the packers outside the state would respond to the 

 same inquiries I think it would be quite right to request it there. 



Mr. Curtiss: There has been discovered recently, within the 

 past few years, that there is an alarming increase of tuberculosis 

 in hogs. And as nearly as can be ascertained, the hogs most seri- 

 ously affected are those in the dairy states, like Wisconsin, Iowa 

 and other states similarly situated. As the members of the board 

 doubl^ess know, the packers undertook last summer to buy bulls 

 and dairy stock and cows of that kind subject to post-mortem 

 examination. This met with violent opposition on the part of the 

 commission houses, and the packers finally receded from their posi- 

 tion and have gone back to the old basis. The ground for objection 

 that the commission houses gave was that there were so many of 

 the smaller packing houses around and outside the city, outside of 

 the larger packers of Chicago, which buy this stuff that it would 

 be impossible to sell to them subject to this post-morten examina- 

 tion, and I think there is probably some justification for this posi- 

 tion at present. And that objection will probably exist until gov- 

 ernment inspection is established in a larger number of houses, or 

 practicall}^ all of the houses. The commission houses take the posi- 

 tion that it would limit the sale of that kind of stuff to a few houses 

 and thereby give them a monopoly. I think it is quite clearly 

 demonstrated that those outside firms are an important factor in 

 buying that kind of stuff, for during the period of seven weeks 

 while this controversy was on and while the larger houses bought 

 no stock of this kind, the commission houses refusing to sell them, 

 they disposed of aU that kind of stock to smaller and outside firms, 

 and after the first week the prices advanced steadily. That indi- 



