that if a designated shipper continued to ship or sell to others and if this caused dissatisfaction to the Fowler Packing Co. it would discontinue its arrangement with such shipper and would substitute some other shipper.

With the exception of the cases where the selected shipper permitted others to ship in his name or with his consent the selected shipper purchased the hogs outright from the producers in his locality, and the hogs were weighed at the place where the selected shipper was doing business, or, in other words, the producer was given country weights, and the shipper became the absolute owner vested with title to the hogs to had purchased.

The hogs received at the Mistletoe stockyards are the property of the shipper or the producer, as the case may be, until the sale is actually consummated in the Mistletoe stockyards. The hogs are received, weighed, yarded, and handled as the property of such shipper or producer and carry all risks of ownership up to the time they are weighed, the price determined, and the sale actually made.

The Fowler Packing Co. informs the designated shippers that it will pay them for their hogs at the Mistletoe stockyards the average price paid in the Kansas City public stockyards for the respective grades on the day the hogs are received at the Mistletoe stockyards.

The head hog buyer of the Fowler Packing Co. goes on the Kansas City stockyards market every business day and informs himself by observation and inquiry as to the prices being paid for the various grades of hogs being sold upon the market. Having done this, he returns to the Mistletoe stockyards and uses this information in arriving at the prices for receipts of the Mistletoe stockyards. He takes the record upon which are shown the weights of the hogs received in the Mistletoe stockyards. This records discloses the difference between the weights of each lot of hogs before and after being watered or after being watered and fed in cases where corn is fed for the shipper. The head hog buyer of the Fowler Packing Co. since August 15, 1921, has been D. B. Ralston, who is an experienced and qualified hog buyer.

Accompanied by a docker or shrinker employed by the Fowler Packing Co., the buyer of the Fowler Packing Co. goes to the various pens of hogs for the purpose of arriving at the prices to be paid therefor. The buyer determines the grade and quality of the hogs in each lot and applies to them the price or prices that, in his judgment, represent the average price or prices paid in the Kansas City public stockyards for hogs of like grade, quality, and weight. He does not take into consideration the relative amount of fill in the various lots of hogs in the Mistletoe stockyards nor the fact that the hogs sold at the Kansas City public stockyards market customarily receive both water and corn fill before being weighed for the purpose of applying the price. He does not vary the price in accordance with whether or not the information before him shows that the hogs at the Mistletoe stockyards have shrunk or increased in weight after arrival at the yards, nor does he vary it as between the hogs that receive only water and those that receive both water and

corn.

Usually when the price is fixed the hogs at the Mistletoe stockyards have been given only a water fill at the yards, although in some exceptional cases, other than the hogs shipped by Hawkins, they were fed corn also. The hogs shipped by Hawkins were nearly always fed corn after arrival in the yards, even though these hogs were slaughtered at the same time as those of other shippers which were not fed corn. There were 11,140 hogs received at the Mistletoe stockyards from Hawkins from September, 1921, to February, 1922, inclusive, or slightly over 5 per cent of the total receipts of the yards. It is the general practice in connection with the shipment of hogs to the Fowler Packing Co. at the Mistletoe stockyards, and the Fowler Packing Co. advised the shippers that it was desirable, to place a quantity of ear corn in each car at the point of loading, so as to make it available to the hogs while in transit. The accessability of the Kansas City and other public stockyards was a matter of common knowledge, and the designated shippers of the Fowler Packing Co. knew the general difference in methods with respect to watering and feeding between the Mistletoe stockyards and the Kansas City public stockyards, but there is some evidence that the shippers were not informed that any shipper could have his hogs fed corn or in particular that Hawkins did have his hogs fed corn in the Mistletoe stockyards and got the benefit of the gain in weight resulting therefrom. Moreover, at least one shipper specifically requested that his hogs be fed corn at these yards, which request was refused.

After the price is once fixed by the Fowler Packing Co.'s head hog buyer, there is no reconciliation or adjustment with the shipper, although it appears that, if the shipper were present when the price is fixed and before the hogs are mingled with the other receipts of the Mistletoe stockyards, the hog buyer will give the shipper the option of removing the hogs if he is not satisfied with the price. However, the owner of the hogs would not usually know what price it was proposed to pay him for his hogs until after the close of the Kansas City public stockyards market. In order to sell them to anyone else, it would be necessary for him to either reload the hogs in a railroad car for shipment to the Kansas City public stockyards, or elsewhere, or drive them on foot, or take them by auto-truck to the Kansas City public stockyards, it being the policy of the Fowler Packing Co. to permit no one else, except the occasional stocker and feeder purchaser hereinbefore mentioned, to purchase hogs in the Mistletoe stockyards. In some cases, shippers complained that the prices received were not satisfactory, and some stated that after making such complaint they received better prices on subsequent shipments, but as a general rule the shippers testified that they were satisfied with the prices that they received.

Certain witnesses testified that during periods when they were shipping hogs to the Mistletoe stockyards and when at the same time they did not have competition with other local buyers, the shrinkage or loss between the country weights and the Mistletoe stockyards we'ghts was much greater than during other periods when they did have such competition. There is no direct evidence that the hog buyer of the Fowler Packing Co. actually took such competitive conditions into consideration in pricing the hogs or that the variations in shrinkage complained of were not due to other causes.

Other testimony showed that frequently there was no difference between the first and last weights of hogs in the Mistletoe stockyards and that in some cases the last weight, or the weight after the hogs were watered, was less than the first weight. In October, 1921, out of 396 cars received at the Mistletoe stockyards, the first and last weights of 43 cars were the same; in November, 1921, out of 564 cars received, the first and last weights of 77 cars were the same; in December, 1921, out of 609 cars received, the first and last weights of 93 cars were the same; in January, 1922, out of 496 cars received, the first and last weights of 93 cars were the same; and in February, 1922, out of 478 cars received, the first and last weights of 74 cars were the same. As shown elsewhere in these findings, whenever the last weight was less than the first weight the higher weight was used in settling with the shipper. The evidence is not conclusive as to the cause or causes for so large a per centage of the final weights being the same or less after being watered as before being watered, and the evidence does not show that there was inaccurate weighing. The testimony of most of the shippers to the Mistletoe stockyards was that the weights reported on their shipments had been satisfactory.

No representative of the shipper nor any disinterested or neutral agency other than the Western Weighing and Inspection Bureau, the functions of which have beens et out here nbefore, or possibly a Government inspector passing on disease, is present when the hogs are unloaded, received, weighed, sorted, graded, and the purchase price of the hogs arrived at by the employees of the Fowler Packing Co. However, these facts are known to the shippers who may be present if they desire. The Fowler Packing Co. assumes full responsibility to its shippers for the methods in handling, weighing, and fixing the prices for hogs received and purchased in the Mistletoe stockyards.

The receipts of hogs at the Kansas City public stockyards are derived from the surrounding States and cover a wider expanse than the bulk receipts of the Mistletoe stockyards. Armour & Co., Swift & Co., Cudahy & Co., Wilson & Co., and other packers, except the Fowler Packing Co., buy hogs and other livestock in these public stockyards.

Much testimony was taken to show the relative gain in weight of hogs receiving a corn and water fill as compared with hogs receiving water alone after arriving at the stockyards and before the weights were taken upon which payment was made.

In a series of shipments of hogs during September, 1921, to February, 1922, inclusive, from Franklin, Nebr., a distance of 317 miles, made by Jesse G. Hawkins to the Mistletoe stockyards, the hogs were given both water and corn in the Mistletoe yards, and there was an average gain of 6.51 pounds per head over the unloading weights, while the general average gain of all other shipments received at the Mistletoe stockyards during the same period, the great

bulk of which received only water and no corn in the yards, was 2.47 pounds per head, which indicates a net average gain in the yards of 4.04 pounds per head in these particular lots by reason of the corn fill.

In a series of 44 tests made on behalf of the complainants upon that number of shipments from various points of shipment to the Kansas City public stockyards in the month of March, 1922, selected at random, there was an average gain per head of 6.23 pounds on the hogs which had been both watered and fed corn between the first and second weights.

In a series of 76 tests made on behalf of the complainants upon that number of shipments from various points of shipment to the Kansas City public stockyards in the month of March, 1922, selected at random, the hogs were yarded upon arrival, given all the water they would drink, then weighed, then returned to their pens and given both water to drink and all the corn they would eat. and then again weighed. Between these two weighings the hogs gained on an average of 4.65 pounds per head.

No evidence was submitted showing to what extent the placing of corn in the car in which the hogs were shipped would affect the amount of fill that the hogs would take after arrival in the yards as compared with the fill that hogs would take that had not had corn placed in the car. It is disclosed by the evidence that the distance of shipments from market, the condition of the car and weather, and the conditions of loading would materially affect and vary the results of such feeding in offsetting shrinkage between the weight at the home shipping point and the final weight at the stockyards. However, the evidence is conclusive that hogs receiving both a corn and water fill, after arriving at both the Mistletoe and Kansas City stockyards, show a material gain over hogs that receive only a water fill after arriving at the yards nd before tking the final weight. Likewise, the evidence conclusively shows that the weight of the fill that the hog stake after arrival at a stockyard under either method of handling before weighing is a varying and not a constant quantity, many factors contributing to the amount of water and corn that a given lot of hogs will consume after arrival at either the Mistletoe or Kansas City stockyards. Hogs given a corn fill, generally speaking, drink a greater amount of water than they drink without being fed corn.

As a general rule hogs slaughtered following only a water fill dress a higher per cent of meat in proportion to the gross weight of the animal, and, therefore, when the same price per pound is paid in both cases the dressed meat costs less per pound than when the hogs have been slaughtered following both a corn and water fill after arrival at the stockyards.

Whether or not there is, in fact, any profit to the shipper who sells his hogs under the corn and water-fill practice in the Kansas City public stockyards over selling the hogs to the Fowler Packing Co. under the water-fill practice at the Mistletoe stockyards, other marketing conditions being equal, is determined by comparing the increase in proceeds from the greater gain in weight, if any, in the Kansas City public stockyards over the gain in the Mistletoe stockyards with the difference between the cost of marketing the hogs through the Kansas City public stockyards and the cost of marketing them through the Mistletoe stockyards.

Under its announced plan of buying hogs in the Mistletoe stockyards, when the hogs are not fed corn, the Fowler Packing Co. saves the amount that otherwise would have been paid on account of gain due to corn fill, and, to the extent that this saving is not offset by costs attributable to the operation of the Mistletoe stockyards, it accrues to the benefit of the Fowler Packing Co.

The principal items of cost of marketing through the Kansas City public stockyards are the commission charge of $15 per car paid to the commission man making the sale, 12 cents per head paid to the stockyards company for yardage, $1 per bushel for the corn fed to the hogs while in the yards, and 15 cents per car for insurance.

In the Mistletoe yards no commission is charged for selling, and no charge is made for yardage. When corn is fed the price charged by the Fowler Packing Co. is the same as that at the Kansas City public stockyards-$1 per bushel. For fire insurance the Fowler Packing Co. collects 15 cents per car from the shipper. A switching charge of $5.50 per car is collected by the carrier on hogs delivered at the Mistletoe stockyards from noncompetitive railroad points. In addition to the cost of marketing through the Mistltoe stockyards there is the cost at the shipping point of the ear corn usually placed in the cars by the owner or shipper. It appears that it is not the practice to place corn in the cars of hogs shipped to the public stockyards.

If the increase in proceeds by reason of the corn fill exceeds the difference between the Kansas City public stockyards marketing cost and the Mistletoe stockyards marketing cost the net return to the shipper is greaer in the case of the Kansas City public stockyards than in the case of the Mistletoe stockyards. On the other hand, if the difference between the marketing costs in the two yards exceeds the increase in proceeds because of the corn fill, the net return to the shipper is greater in the Mistletoe stockyards than in the public yards. The lower the market price of hogs the less will be the value of any additional fill on the basis of the present charge for corn.

What is known as the "total public buy" in the Kansas City public stockyards includes the "packer drove" or the "packer buy," and the hogs purchased for slaughter elsewhere than by the Kansas City packing plants known as the "shipper's buy." The "main drove or "Fowler buy in the Mistletoe stockyards constitutes practically all of the hogs purchased for slaughter in these yards, except such hogs as are known as "throw-outs," including piggy sows, stags, boars, cripples, and other materially defective hogs.

Complainant's Exhibit No. 101 shows the daily average price paid for the "main drove" or "Fowler's buy" hogs in the Mistletoe stockyards. In respondent's Exhibit No. 6, pages 2 to 8, the daily average price paid for the "main drove hogs in the Mistletoe stockyards is also shown. With slight fractional variation the daily prices shown in complainant's Exhibit No. 101 and in the part of respondent's Exhibit No. 6 just noted are in substantial agreement and may be accepted as showing the daily average price paid per pound in the Mistletoe stockyards. Respondent's Exhibit No. 6, pages 2 to 8, also shows the daily average price per pound for the packer buy' and for the "total public buy" of hogs in the Kansas City public stockyards. The complainants did not submit a table showing the daily average price paid for the "packer buy" and the "shipper's buy" or the "total public buy" in the Kansas City public stockyards, but did submit in Exhibits Nos. 100 and 111 the average price paid per pound for each month and for the seven months' period from August, 1921, to February, 1922, inclusive. The figures as to prices were obtained by taking the total weight of the hogs in each class and dividing this weight into the total number of dollars paid for the hogs in that class. Complainant's Exhibits Nos. 100, 101, and 111 used this method. Respondent's Exhibit No. 6 also uses this method for the daily averages, but for the monthly averages it uses the average of the daily averages and for the seven months it uses the average of the monthly averages.

In these findings the figures as to prices are obtained by taking the total weight for each day and dividing it into the total number of dollars paid on that day for the hogs of each class to which reference is made. Bearing in mind that this is the true basis for the comparison of prices between the Mistletoe stockyards and the Kansas City public stockyards, and that the issue in this particular connection is whether or not the prices paid in the Mistletoe stockyards were actually equivalent to the prices paid in the public stockyards for hogs of like grade, weight, and quality on the day of purchase, the footnotes at the bottom of complainant's Exhibit No. 111 and respondent's Exhibit No. 6 are not correct applications of the figures in this case and do not present fair conclusions therefrom. In complainant's Exhibit No. 111 the footnote purports to show a net loss in dollars to shippers whose hogs were purchased in the Fowler yards, on the basis of the average price per 100 pounds paid in the Fowler yards calculated for the entire period of seven months without regard to daily or monthly comparisons. On the other hand, the footnote in respondent's Exhibit No. 6 purports to show a net gain in dollars to shippers whose hogs were purchased in the Mistletoe stockyards, on the basis of the average price per 100 pounds paid in the Mistletoe stockyards for the entire period of seven months arrived at by taking as the monthly average the average of the daily averages and as the seven months' average the average of the monthly averages.

A comparison of the daily average price paid for the "main drove" hogs in the Mistletoe stockyards and for the "total public buy" in the Kansas City public stockyards as set forth in respondent's Exhibit No. 6, pages 2 to 8, and complainant's Exhibit No. 101 shows that for the month of August, 1921, the price was slightly higher for 18 market days in the Mistleto stockyards than in the Kansas City public stockyards. The reverse was true for six market days, and the price was the same for two market days.

In the month of September the daily average price in the Mistletoe stockyards was slightly higher than in the Kansas City public stock yards for 23 market days, the reverse being true for 3 market days.

For the month of October the daily average price paid in the Mistletoe stockyards was slightly higher than in the Kansas City public stockyards for 19 market days. The reverse was true for five market days, and the price was the same for one market day.

During the month of November the daily average price in the Mistletoe stockyards was slightly higher than in the Kansas City public stockyards for 13 market days. The reverse was true for nine market days, the price being the same on three market day.

In the month of December the daily average price paid in the Mistletoe stockyards was slightly higher than in the Kansas City public stockyards for 16 days. The reverse was true for nine market days, and the price was the same for one market day.

In the month of January, 1922, the daily average price paid in the Mistletoe stockyards was slightly higher than in the Kansas City public stockyards for 15 market days. The reverse was true for eight market days, and the price was the same for three market days.

In the month of February the daily average price paid in the Mistletoe stockyards was slightly higher than in the Kansas City public stockyards for 11 market days. The reverse was true for 11 market days, and the price was the same on 2 market days.

The foregoing analysis shows that, without taking into consideration weight, quality, or difference in fill, on the whole the daily average price paid per pound for the "main drove " or "Fowler buy" in the Mistletoe stockyards was higher than the average daily price paid per pound for the total public buy" in the Kansas City public stockyards during the period from August, 1921, to February, 1922, except for the month of February.

This is further supported by the comparison made in complainant's Exhibit No. 111 of the average prices paid per hundred pounds for the total public buy in the Kansas City public stockyards and the "main drove" or "Fowler buy in the Mistletoe stockyards for each month from August, 1921, to February, 1922, inclusive. The comparison is shown in the following table:

During the same period the daily average weight per head in the Kansas City public stockyards as compared with the daily average weight in the Mistletoe stockyards on 17 market days for the month of August, 1921, showed that the hogs were heavier in the Kansas City public stockyards than in the Mistletoe stockyards. The reverse was true for nine market days. The averag weight per head for the "total public buy" in the Kansas City public stockyards for the month of August was 226 pounds, and for the "main drove” in the Mistletoe stockyards 209 pounds.

For the month of September, the hogs were heavier in the Kansas City public stockyards than in the Mistletoe stockyards on 21 market days. The reverse was true for four market days, and the weight was the same for one market day. The average weight per head for the total public buy in the Kansas City public stockyards for the month of September was 216 pounds, and for the "main drove" in the Mistletoe stockyards 196 pounds.

For the month of October hogs were heavier in the Kansas City public stockyards than in the Mistletoe stockyards on 24 market days. The reverse was