420 
M. H. REYNOLDS. 
there to justify the time and expense involved? It is not my 
intention to paint the prospects for a young veterinarian in un¬ 
true colors, for every intelligent veterinarian and stockman 
knows that veterinary practice during the past few years of de¬ 
preciation in live stock values has not been extremely attrac- 
/ 
tive ; but the stockmen themselves, the business men in our 
great cities and possibly my medical brethren have suffered 
something from this same condition. There is a veterinarian 
in Chicago whose income from actual practice is estimated at 
from $40,000 to $60,000 a year. A private veterinarian’s prac¬ 
tice right here in Minneapolis during more prosperous years was 
actually worth from $10,000 to $13,000 for years in succession. 
Another practice in St. Paul netted nearly as much. 
The present ratio is three farm animals to each human being 
and less than one veterinarian for each ten physicians. The live 
stock valuation in the United States is estimated at $2,000,- 
000,000. Two hundred and fifty millions dollars’ worth of live 
stock is sold annually in Chicago. I give these figures to illus¬ 
trate possibilities, not for the purpose of giving an impression 
that veterinary practice is a universal bonanza, for there are 
plenty of practitioners in veterinary as in human medicine who 
can scarcely keep their laundry bills paid. 
The Government Bureau of Animal Industry is now offering 
positions for veterinarians as meat and live stock inspectors at 
the great slaughter-houses and ports of entry or shipment. Bu¬ 
reau inspectors must be graduates of recognized veterinary col¬ 
leges. It has been so ordered by Congress. The Government is 
already employing a large number of trained veterinarians in 
these capacities and this work has only begun. To illustrate 
the development of this field it is only necessary to bear in mind 
that the increase of meat inspection alone was from less than 
4,000,000 animals in 1892 to 26,500,000 in 1897. In 1898 there 
were over 51,000,000 animals inspected ante-mortem, and over 
30,000,000 animals inspected post-mortem. 
In nearly every State and territory there is a position for a 
state or territorial veterinarian or an officer with equivalent du- 
