The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-12-27
THE ScARcITY OF HOGS.

CHICAGO, Dec. 26-There is dullness
about Packin gtown nowadays that has
not been paralleled tor many years.
Since the first Of December 5, 900 men have
been discharged, and the plants of the big
packers are hardly working half their
capacity. Nor is this the only element OF
encouragement in the situation. The in
dications are that, unless the supply Of
hogs is materially and speedily increased,
further reductions will be necessary in
the now small operating forces OF the big
packers This unusual condition OF things
in Packingtown and the consequent hard
ship brought upon the large laboring pop
ulation of that locality have been brought
about by most unusual shortage in the
hog crop. This shortage is readily shown
by the following statistics:
From November 1st TO December 21st,
western packing was but $3.50, 90 against
3, 900 for the same period last year,
showing a. shortage of ! SAC, 600 hogs for
the west. Chicago, for the same period
this year packed $50 900 against 1,47O.O0O
last year, showing a shortage Tor this
market of nearly 200. 900.
Leading packers, while they assert that
this condition of affairs was foreseen in
part, admit that the shortage greatly ex-
ceeds the calculation of the shrewdesr
among them and that some of them were
caught on the wrong side of the market.
They admit that there does not seem TO be
any immediate relief from the EN- barasslng
situation, since the shortages daily become
greater, and some of them 90 so far as TO
assert that 10 relief can come until the
next spring crop of hogs is marketed.
Usually at this time Of year, the packing
houses are running to their fullest capac-
ity, in view of the big demand which Will
be made during the coming season, but
the remarkable scarcity of hogs and the
big prices asked for what the market
really has, makes the packing OF pork de-
cidedly costly and Improbable business
The packing necessary TO supply the pres
ent orders is done, but with as small
force as is possible Commission men do
ing business at the yards, figured that the
crop would be short and the prices high,
but not to its present extent, and they
now wonder that they did not notice TO
prepare for il sooner The shortage is
ascribsd to variety of causes. Robert
Strahorn, of the firm of Strahorn & Co.,
who has been in business for over thirty
years and is amply qualified by experience
to speak on the matter. said:
1.-The heavy spring rains played promi-
nent part in the question. In many sec
tions, the continual wet weather killed off
the spring crop of pigs that would be mar
ketable now; then the low prices of the
product early in the spring made the farm
erS careless and insteBd of keeping their
hogs. as they usually 60, until the holi-
days, they started earlier and crowded
them with cheap corn and sent them to
market. We wi have to wait for hogs to
mature and in the meantime prices will
be high. There is and will be a
demand for fresh pork in this country and
there is demand from Europe for salted
and picked meats. These demands take
about all the receipts, leaving few indeed
for packers to put in their own cellars.
They do not want to buy, but what they
need and look for, is heavier receipts later
on"
Charles A. Mallory, manager for Nal
lory, Son e. Zimmerman, said: 1.-The re-
ceipts show that the supply of raw mater
iai has been very small compared with
last year under a fresh demand on ship
ping and local and export account, the
small receipts having been taken freely
aud prices for hogs have been advanced
almost double the price of one year ago.
The prices for provisions have also ad-
vauced sharply, but have not kept pace
with the advance in hogs and consequently
the season has not been profitable one
for the packer"
J. C. Hately, of ]. c. Hately s. Co, also
ascribed the shortage in hogs to the unus-
ually wet spring during which many OF
the young pigs were drowned. 1T GER
taiuly is an unusual condition of the hog
market" he said, ''and l do not look for
any change for the better for several
months"
In the summer. in anticipation OF good
time coming, pork was sold short" the
expect alton being that packing could oe
done ia the winter. Winter is now here
and the price is now double that OF y
month ago,