552 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



about 60 per cent of live weight, sheep 50 per cent and hogs 80 per 

 cent. The remainder is waste, unless there are facilities for trans- 

 forming it into salable commodities. In cattle, the value of the hide 

 and offal if properly handled equals 15 per cent of live value of 

 animals. The skillful removal of hides' in the larger plants often 

 results in an increased price for hides of about 1 cent a pound, over 

 that paid for skins improperly removed by small butchers and 

 farmers. Other items are correspondingly enhanced in value under 

 systematic and economical treatment. 



It will thus be seen that municipal or combined slaughter houses 

 are advantageous both to the dealer and the consumer. A full 

 knowledge of conditions in many of the smaller slaughter houses 

 would cause the public to demand thorough inspection and sanitary 

 regulation. It is possible under the present system to introduce 

 into the markets meat fairly reeking with germs. Such meat is 

 innocently purchased every day by patrons of the market. 



In any other line of food products, this indifference is regarded as 

 almost criminal. The meat industry owes to itself a thorough in- 

 spection of its products, and an effective system of sanitary regula- 

 tion, not only of the output of the larger plants where the govern- 

 ment inspection prevails, but of every establishment where animals 

 are slaughtered for the public market. 



HOG CHOLERA SERUM. 



At the earnest solicitation of the chief of the Bureau of Animal 

 Industry, the State Veterinarian in 1908 visited the Bureau's hog 

 cholera experiment station at Ames, together with live stock sani- 

 tary boards and veterinarians from other states, in order to become 

 familiar with the methods of manufacturing serum for the preven- 

 tion of hog cholera devised by Drs. Dorset, McBride and Niles of 

 the Bureau named. 



The Thirty-third General Assembly was urged to make some 

 provision for the manufacture of hog cholera serum under state 

 supervision, and accordingly the present law relating to this sub- 

 ject was passed, which appears in full elsewhere in this report. 



