AGRICULTURE. LABOR AND INDUSTRY 19 



Experience has shown that Section 2630, the "Anti-Discriminatory 

 Price" law, is worded so as to be impossible of enforcement. The 

 trouble with this law is, that the intent to create a monoply or destroy 

 the business of a competitor must be proved. To illustrate: Two or 

 more large creameries secretly enter into an agreement to make a low 

 price covering a large area of territory. They agree not to compete 

 wuth each other by raising prices. At some point within this territory 

 a local creamery or some outside buyer begins paying several cents 

 per pound more for butter fat; the large creameries raise the price 

 at that point to meet the local or outside competition, but leave the 

 prices as they are, at the points, where there is no competition. In a 

 case of that kind, it is not possible to prove the intention of creating 

 a monoply or destroying the business of a competitor. At' the same 

 time in places where there was no competition the prices might be 

 ruinously low for the producers. 



In the province of Alberta and in some of the states there is a 

 lav.' which prevents the payment of higher prices in one place than in 

 another, after considering the difference in transportation costs. It is 

 not necessary to prove the intention of creating a monopoly or of de- 

 stroying the business of a competitor. 



Selecting' DaiiT Cattle: In passing it may be well to call atten- 

 tion to some of the activities of the Division of Dairying in extension 

 work. Since the office was created, in April 1921, the Chief of Di- 

 vision of Dairying has visited more than half of the counties in the 

 state to attend the farmers' meetings and talk on dairying and kindred 

 subjects. In addition to that he has bought in other states a herd of 

 high-grade cows and a purebred bull for the State Vocational School 

 for Girls; thirty registered Guernseys for the Plains Guernsey Breeders' 

 Association, Plains, Montana; twenty highgrade cows for the Montana 

 Mutual Dairy Loan Association of Missoula; thirteen registered Guern- 

 seys for a club of five indiAdduals living in Ravalli and Missoula 

 counties, as well as some for individuals in other places, where the 

 work could be done at the same time that it was done for those getting 

 a larger number. This work has been done at no expense to the state. 



Co-Operative Crop Reporting Service: The work of this division 

 embodies mainly the collection of original data on crop and livestock 

 production for the state, and the publication of monthly and special 

 reports on crop production and conditions, together with an annual 

 summary of the chief crops produced in the state, their farm value, and 

 the number of livestock with their farm value. This office is a link in 

 the federal department's organization for assembling all crop and live- 

 stock data. Information is collected monthly on prices of farm crops, 

 and prices of articles bought by farmers. Special data relative to the 

 potato crop are collected during the growing and marketing seasons, 

 and reports issued covering them. This division also assembles and 

 tabulates the Montana farm census reports collected through the 

 county assessors' offices. All inquiries for statistical information on 

 agriculture and livestock are handled in this office. 



Direct ^larketing- Assistance: The foregoing activities of the de- 

 partment have been conducted through one or the other of the di- 

 visions. Many lines of work are conducted direct from the Commis- 

 sioner's office, chiefly those having to do with assistance in marketing. 

 Carefully prepared lists of potato buyers, brokers and commission 

 dealers in all markets to which Montana ships, whose financial rating 

 and business reputation were first-class, were furnished potato growers, 

 organizations, county agents and others interested. Investigations were 

 conducted during the year of disputes between growers and selling 

 agencies. Probably the most important was the hearing of the diffi- 

 culties between potato growers of the Madison and Jefferson valleys, 



