Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1889-09-22
OUR FARMING INTERESTS
What Should be Done to
Encourage Development.
MORE ABOUT HOGS FOR PROFIT
Many Lines in Which the Farmers
Need to Combine for Their Own
Protection in this Section.

The Rural Californian published for
the current month an issue of remark
able features in many respects. 1t con-
tains nearly 100 pages Of matter, great
deal of which is exceptionally good.
One of the most prominent features OF
the issue is the large amount of advertis-
ing in it. More than one half of the
matter is paid for. 1t is understood that
this department was for the most part
attended to by Mr.. J. Mariner Kent, and
he certainly did right yeoman work in
securing in these dull times SO large a
patronage for his paper.
The number in question is supposed to
be an immigration one. That is. it is in
the main destined for eastern distribu.
ton, and go used it will be of great SER
vice in attracting the attention OF the
people at the East to this section.
And now, after being able to say. so
much for this publication that is good. it
is distasteful to be obliged to indulge in
criticism of an adverse nature. But the
Rural has admitted into its columns
letter bearing the heading, Clogs for
Proft-A Cautioning acknowledged
TX. Y. H." which is calculated to do
not little injury to our interests at the
East. If the Rural were under any OBJ.
legations to the fellow who penned the
letter, 80 that it had to be admitted, then
the least spark of local patriotism would
have dictated the making of some COM
ment on the statements therein, so as in
some degree to have lessened the force
of what WAS there said. Gratitude to
the many people whose lands or bust
ness is advertised in the Rural should
have inspired the guarding of those in
terests 30 far as the facts in the case
would admit, and should not have
allowed the printing of q letter every
word of which is aimed at the heart of
the interests so advertised.
The letter attacks an article which APP
peared in the HERALD last July, in which
attention was called to the field that is
opened here for the making of large
profits in the business of hog raising.
The writer takes issue with this journal
on these views, and contends that there
is no profit in the raising of hogs. The
communication is 80 unpstriotic and so
sinister in it's tone that one is at loss
for the motive that inspired it. Here is
q sentence culled from more of similar
tenor: 'It has been practically demon
strated that hogs raised in California pro-
duce meat lacking in appearance, flavor
and all the essential qualities character
istic of eastern meats, and that makes
(sic) eastern meats desirable and worth
more money" Now, what is the pur-
pose of making statement like
that? 1t is not love of truth.
Hogs fed here as they are fed
in Iowa and Illinois will produce as
good meat az the western hog. If the
meat is cured by the same process as is
used in Chicago or Cincinnati it will be
as palatable as any meats cured in those
cities. And there is no vestige of rea-
son why the same feed should not be had
for hogs here as there, nor why they
should not be as we'll cured. If this
writer had stated that hogs in this section
are fed on poor stuff, or that the meat is
reason in fact on which to base the as.
sertion, and make it at least partially
true. But in the shape in which it
appears it is grossly false. The only
motive we can find for this sort
of outgiving is that the writer
is engaged in importing hog products
from the West to this city, or that he is
interested in some hog establishment at
the West. He may be simply ignorant
on the subject on which he is writing,
and may have done this injury to this
section without interested or malign
motives. But the Rural ought to protect
it's patrons in this section against the
injurious effects of such letter, whether
it was penned in ignorance or malice.
The letter in another part says:
Doubtless, packers here would like to
have farmers raise hogs. 1t would be
source of profit to the packer, because
he could dictate prices but the result to
the farmer would probably be unsatis-
factory, if not disastrous. Now, here
there is some ground for the statement
made. Some years ago the Laguna
Farming Company procured a large
mum Der of hogs witch were fattened on
the barley and other stuff produced
on the ranch. When ready for the
knife, these enterprising people discov-
cred that the packers had made COM
bine and would not pay fair price for
the hogs. The result was that the en-
terprise was abandoned after that year.
and no similar attempt was made again.
There is nothing in the climate of Los
Angeles to account for this state of af-
fairs. All sections of the country have
been in an embryo condition at times
All industries have their small begin
nings and have to be nursed into life.
If the middlemen of Los Angeles are of
this stamp, some measures should be
taken at once to stamp them out of ex.
istence. The proper thing to do is to
encourage enterprises of the sort re-
terred to with view of making
large profits out of them after
they have reached certain stage of de-
velopment. If the merchants here are
so foolish as to kill the goose that lays
the golden eggs, SO as to get all the profit
at one squeeze, why let them be forced
out of the way, to make place for men of
q more enlightened policy. But, the
HERALD is not of the Cassandra prophet
stripe, and does Lot see any reason for
taking 80 lugubrious view of the situa-
ton. 1t is of the opinion that all that is
necessary in these premises is to get up q
strong combination of the producers and
dealers, with view to developing many
of the agricultural resources OF this Sec
ton in such q manner as to make them
profitable to both producer and dealer.
1t is very certain that a large percent.
age of the dealers of this city and OF sur
rounding towns can be enrolled in such
an organization. Hogs are not tho only
industry for which such combination is
l..