Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1893-02-17
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
The High Prices Of Hogs---IIow Long
WIZ They I.asti

The High Prices Of Hogs---How Long
WIZ They LHstl
The recent remarkable rise in the price
of pork and pork products has attracted
the attention of pork growers and pork
users alike. As an illustration of what this
advance has amounted to, this paragraph
from the market columns Of the New York
Tribune of last Saturday is of interest,":
''The daily arrival of hogs at the stock
yards in and out of the city have fallen off
from an average of about 40 cars day
year ago to about 20 cars day at
present. Yesterday the price of hogs
reached the highest point touched since
the war, with every indication that the fig
ures would 90 higher before they would 90
lower. Porkers weighing from 120 to 100
pounds are now selling at double the figure
they brought last year, costing from to
81 cents a pound live weight and % to 10f
cents dressed, wholesale, which means that
the consumer has to pay from Is to %
cents pound for cuts. The supply is
so limited that the buyers are ransacking
the country for hogs, and vast quantities
of pork products of inferior quality, which
have been held in storehouses awaiting
market, have been worked off at highly
remunerative prices. Beef, veal and NUT
ton have gone up likewise, though not in
the same proportion as hogs
The Maine Farmer recognizing what this
state of things means for the hog product
of the next two or three years, at least,
enters into a careful discussion Of the sub
iect, and its conclusions are of interest to
every farmer who raises pork for market,
whether in large or small quantities:
"There is no question but the bottom
cause of this advance in pork is shortage
Of the crop in the great pork-producing
| states. An increase in the foreign demand
| for our pork products coming on just at
| this time has had its effect in pushing the
rise up, but this is only an incidental aid
| and not the real cause. In considering
whether these higher prices are like to con-
| tinue for any length Of time, we must con
slider the situation as it is. 1t takes time
/ to recover from a shortage of domestic
animals of any kind. Farmers cannot go
out and buy up their usual stock for the
plain reason the supply is short and they
are not to be found. They must be bred.
| Right here is another stump in the way
the breeding stock is short. The usual
supply, even, cannot be bred this year, to
say nothing of the unusual number that
would be called for in order TO fill up the
shortage Hence time must elapSe before
the gap can be filed. The breeding stock
must be bred and reared with which to
breed the increase called for, and which
must be forthcoming before prices will drop
to their former level.
sit takes year and a half to breed and
rear a breeding SOW up to her farrowing
period. 1t then takes nine to fifteen months
according to the season to put that increase
on the market. Hence it is easily seen
that some years must elapse before great
shortage can be fully filled up, and, other
conditions remaining the same, it is reason
able to calculate that better prices than for
several years past will be realized for some
years to come or until the shortage is made
up.
SIN confirmation of our conclusions on
the hog supply, we quote from a commune
cation from an Illinois farmer He says:
The cause of the shortage is easy to under
stand. Here in this part of Illinois we
have had no good corn the last three years.
The last two years the corn to fatten the
hogs was worth more than the hogs besides
the care and keep of sows, boars and care
of young pigs. Farmers were losing
money so they concluded TO stop raising
so many hogs. In this county Bond
there is not to-day one-fourth the number
of brood sows there was three years ago.
little pigs are very scarce and fat hogs
will all be shipped out by Feb. l. | was
at a farmers public sale last week where
twenty-eight little shoats weighing about
sxty-five pounds sold for s120.50. There
were twenty farmers there wanting to buy
those pigs which were common stock
THE lesson to Eastern farmers is to
breed all the pigs this coming year that
is practicable. There is no marked short
age of breeding sOws here, so that the null
DUPLICATION can be prompt and marked.
There will be demand for all that can be
raised and handsome profit on all that
are fed"