thousand tricks. City lots, mining lots, gas, oil, patents, everything is made the 

 object of tempting solicitations under the name of some master of finance or with the 

 help of an advertisement, skilfully inserted in a prominent place in a paper with a wide 

 circulation. It is a real plague, a pest. One must live in the country and hear the 

 complaints of the victims to realize the magnitude of these operations. In the single 

 county of St. Hyacinthe, over one hundred thousand dollars have been extracted from 

 the farmers' pocket, and the whole amount is lost. Some of these farmers, seized with a 

 real frenzy, did not hesitate to sell the splendid farms that had come down to them from 

 their ancestors and exchange them for worthless paper, which did not confer the title 

 to an inch of ground or a milligram of metal." 



"Cannot this evil be suppressed? Should the farmer be left to gain experience at 

 his own expense by becoming a prey to these rapacious thieves? I think we should follow 

 the example of the Old Country and decree that no person or syndicate shall be authorized 

 to solicit funds unless they have an official certificate, attesting that the undertaking for 

 which they are collecting money is of public utility. Such a law would remove a great 

 many snares." 



One good thing about investing your money at home is the fact that before you 

 invest you can investigate. 



LOSSES TO CATTLE THROUGH BRUISES IN SHIPMENT 

 I 



A conservative estimate places the loss sustained through bruises on cattle handled 

 by the Stock Yards at Toronto, in 1915, at $750,000. 



The loss is greatest among cattle, and for the most part is attributable to hooks 

 by horns, which might be entirely prevented if farmers would go to the trouble of 

 applying a little caustic potash when calves' horns start to grow. This will stop their 

 growth entirely and painlessly. 



Part of the loss is, however, attributable to rough handling and the consequent 

 bruising of lambs, sheep and hogs, and occurs between the time they leave the farm and 

 their arrival at the yards. 



Employees are warned by notices posted at the markets, railway sidings and pack- 

 ing houses, not to use sticks in such a manner as to cause bruising, and so far as the 

 packing houses are concerned, the abuse of live stock is not tolerated. 



At the loading stations, however, accommodation is often insufficient, there not 

 being enough pens to keep strange cattle separated before loading. When the cattle 

 present in one or two pens are made up from a number of different herds, and are 

 strange to each other, they naturally become restless, jumping and hooking and causing 

 great damage. This state of affairs the railways are seeking so far as possible to remedy. 



The Union Stock Yards, when unloading stock, use a buffer on each side of the car 

 door, thus preventing crowding against the sides of the doorway. They also inspect 

 for old nails and spikes. Men loading stock at country points are urged to have the sides 

 of the car doors protected by buffers. 



Buyers figure against losses incurred in this way, so that the loss is borne by the 

 farmer. Buyers at the Toronto markets for sometime deducted two dollars per head 

 for horned cattle. This arrangement, while it lasted, showed good results, both as to 

 dehorning and as regards handling. The practice now is to buy gored cattle at a price 

 that will cover the depreciation. — John Taylor, Gunns Limited. 



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