Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1906-10-05

any nerd The New England company make
US return 70 the droyers In lump sum fo
tach lol of condemned cattle: that Is, /
parlh OF several herds are condemned In
lncalliy, they are all shipped together by tn
urnNef' with no attempt TO identify the cat
lle from cach particular herd, and II is sup
posed mat these condemned cattle are sep
, arllcd from the drover's own cattle wher
lney reach SOmewillc by means Of the *
clipped IN the hair, or other Identification, Il
marx the condemned cattle, but whether tn,
separation Of the condemned cattle from tn,
drONer own stock is correctly done, depends
upon the care and honesty of the person,
handling the stock ut Snmcryillc and moi
upon any care or supervision OF the officers
OF the State Of Vermont. There is no evi
dence to show that the matter has been other
q wise than correctly aud honestly handled
ana there Is no reason for charging that
me persons doing the business have been
oiher than square anf honest, but there is
nothing which the cattle commission have
done to give MS light upon this question one
way or the other,
Returns Not Specific.
The returns are made in a lump sum to
the drover who takes out his commission
and freight of SO per head, and sends his
check for the balance to the commits sioner
who condemned the lot of cattle in question
attach to this report a return from the
New England company To W. \. Kicker for
nerd of 22 cattle under date of June II,
1906, together with statement of Kicker
showing remittance for net balance 10 Commits
sloner stephens. II will be noted that the
New England company does not itself dispose
OF all these earcasSes which are sold for food
purposes, but they turn a portion OF them
over to other commission houses in Boston,
as is shown on this statement Of Riekers the
papers attached showing the detail. Out Of
this particular lot of 20 cattle three were
| condemned and used for fertilizer: 10 we're
sold for food purposes at prices ranging from
/ three 20 six cents per pound There is moth
! ing ON the books Of the commission to indi.
cate from whence these cattle came.
Sold Direct to Drovers.
In two or three instances since the law of
! 1904 took effect the commissioners have sold
/ the condemned cattle direct to the drOver.
| The one particularly | desire to call attention
! to is the sale in October or November. 1905,
| of the cattle condemned from the herds Of
| Charles White and NJ. $. WhtcOmb of Rich.
mond, The commission tested the herds of
| these two parties at Richmond and condemned
| 1875 COWS of the herd of Whitcomb apI 63 of
the herd Of White and Victor |. Spear, then
one of the commissioners, took charge Of the
] disposition of the condemned cattle. The
state paid on the condemnation of the Whit
comb and White cattle approximately S2S
head Commits Spear approached Mr.
VI. G. ROwell of Randolph, one of the drOveTs,
who had previously been shipping condemned
cattle for the state in the manner above set
forth, and asked how much he would give for
the Whitc0mb and White cattle, Spear saying
that he had been offered $40 per head for
offer or whether such an offer was made.
Rowel replied that he wanted to see the cat
tie first, and he thereup0n looked them over
and told Spear that he would give Sll head
for them, and Spear accepted the offer Com
missioner Spear must have understood that
Rowel was buying cattle with the expectation
Of using a considerable portion OF them at
least for food purposes, for they were not
worth anything like the sum paid If they were
to be used only for fertilizer Rowell, at
Spears request, looked at some other con
demned cattle in the vicinity at the same
time but refused to buy them, for the stock
was too poor.
Rowell Made a Good Thing.
Rowell assorted these cattle, put those in
good condition in one lot and the poorer in
another lot and shipped them to Massachu
sets mixed in sth other of his own stock
One carload Of - head was shipped to Ha
yerhill; these were Of the poorer stock. II
doesn't definitely appear as to just what pur-
pose this stock was expected to be put other /
than they were shipped to the slaughter
house at Haverhill, which is n market for
stock used for canned beef 1t is supposed
that this stock was subject to the inspection .
Of the Massachusetts state officers, although (
it doesn't very clearly appear. The last .
seen of this herd of 81 cows at liaverhill was .
in lot near the slaughter house there. There .
is no evidence 10 show what became OF them.
The other ia head which Rowell purchased,
as above stated. he shipped to the New Eng
disposed of other stock consigned to that .
company is, as above set forth ! have not .
been able to find Just how much Roweil re
ceved for this stock. He teStifes that he
himself tell Just exactly, further than
that he made good profit out of il. lie was
asked to furnish me with a return from the
New England company, and has FURNISHED one
return covering so of the cattle. OF this, one
animal was used for fertilizer and the other
40 were used for food purposes prices vary
ing from "a, to 3 X cents pound | attach
herewith the return last above referred to,
Rowel testified that out of the ia head
taken to the New England company not more
than 30 were put into the fertilizer the bal
ance being sold for food. This sale Of stock
By the commissioners to the drover is, in my
Judgment. in violation of the law which is
sales by the commissioners direct to drovers
appear to have been insignificant compare
lively and are not referred to in detail here.
About a year ago one 4. w. Edwards of
Irnderhill wrote to DIR. +. A. Rich of the eat.
lie commission, offering $l3 a head for con
lemned cattle. No attention was paid to this
,ffer although it was larger sum than the
state was receiving from others.
shortly after the shipment OF cattle to
commenced, in the manner
lbove cited the manager OF the Burlington J
company at Burlington, L. +. Brig
lam approached Dr. +. A. Rich of the com
mission and asked him to turn some of the
tate cattle into that concern, saying that .
hey (the rendering company would give
What they were worth, and thereupon the
commenced to ship some of the
condemned cattle to the rendering company at
Burlington The commissioners testify that | {
% far as they know, there was no trade made a
S to how much the rendering company should c
,av for the cattle, they simply trusted the /
endering company to pay what was right a
nd took the returns of that company without t
uestion. The manager testltes that the ar q
angement was to pay two cents pound Tor |
THAT should be used for food and quarter of !
cent pound for what went into the fer d
ilizer The commissioners have kept no rec a
nd of the number of head shipped to the rem
ering company nor of whence they came nor u
+ the returns, except the lump sums re- u
ieved, and there is nothing to identity the !
attic which went to the Burlington plant and y
othng to show how many of them were Tor q
God purposes and how many for tertilzer j
he testimony is conflicting upon the latter
oint but it is evident that large portion of n
he cattle taken to the Burlington plant was z
old for food purposes Cattle taken there '
ave been subject all to the post-mortem eX- 81
of DR.. Rich of the commission, al.
lough there has not been due care exercised
! the handling of these cattle and the lack
records and data concerning IT leaves 1t Il
to show concusively whether the tt
attic have all been subject to post-mortem al
Saminaton by him. II
The way the matter is claimed to have been q
andled is this: The cattle are slaughtered d
nd sided some Of the internal organs being 7
fl attached to the carcass; they are hung on 81
track to await the inspection of DR.. Rich; to
a comes and inspects them, making record OF Ell
le post.mortem of each carcass, which IS m
IMPOSED to be numbered to correspond with Il
"a number of the creature as it is slaugh- ii
red Those which he finds diseased on Dc
Ist.mortem are slashed with a knife to indi-
tie condemnation and are taken to the rem OF
ring tank and put in the fertilizer; the OF
hers are sold for food purposes tn
Dr. Rich testifes that he has sometimes OF
en to it that the cattle marked as diseased ga
I'VE been put into the rendering tank Tor co
rtilizer but that he has no practice about
is and is not able to look after it in all &c
SEES, so that the result is that the matter is m
,actically in the hands of the management of Ia
e rendering company. The secretary OF the dc
tile commission has on file record of all in
SIS made and a record of the post norton lie
animation of such cattle as are slaughtered w
the owners home or at the plant of the pI