192 THE ITINERANT HORSE PHYSICIAN 



without a veterinarian. The surrounding coun- 

 try is apparently well settled, but when you come 

 to investigate you find that the farmers are poor, 

 with not much prospect for ever getting rich or 

 even well off. On the other hand, there are 

 towns of around a thousand inhabitants a little 

 further east supporting two or three veterinari- 

 ans. We remember one town of ten thousand 

 people that could not support one practitioner 

 decently. 



Were I to move into a new location today, I 

 should prefer a strenuous competitive practice in 

 the middle west to a large unopposed field in the 

 west. An itinerant practice I would have — 

 NEVER AGAIN! 



I am not sorry one whit for the years I spent 

 "knocking around"; every day something turns 

 up which makes it possible for me to make good 

 use of the experience I got during that period. 

 This is especially true as regards the use of 

 money ; I can make a dollar go farther today than 

 any other man I know of ; and that is something. 



Whether I will ever have a relapse of the wan- 

 derlust, I cannot tell; so far not a symptom 

 appears. In concluding I will say that I have 

 probably had a career as varied as ever a graduate 

 veterinarian had. I have seen and performed 

 every form of work along veterinary lines under 

 the most varied conditions. Country practice, 

 city practice, state work, government work in 

 both post-mortem and quarantine divisions, drug 

 salesman, manager of a pharmaceutical concern, 

 department editor of a veterinary magazine; 

 in fact, every line of veterinary work. And the 

 best is yet in me. 



