Condon globe. (Condon, Gilliam Co., Or.) 189?-1919, 1902-07-24
or IMPORTANCE 70 ORE,
CON FARMERS.

The matter ofeStabIishing large
stock Yards and packing houses ~
Portlandsis> heii,g' agitated'and the
investigation which has been carri- .
ed f6rward' along that line has
brought 10 light some surprising
facts. According to u. statement
pabltShsdsin the Oeegonian Port
lAntimports annually S25 carloads
ui hams aud; bacon, 9,O00Ooo
pounds, WORTH $1i2J0,000,, and
S.000,000 pounds Of lard, worth
$425.000; all this inraddition to the
products Of $1,000 hegs paCked,lo-
oally. The available market for
local packing-houses comprises, be-
sides the l2.OOo,00 pounds oflardI
lisTss- ard bacon distributed in the
state. 35,000000 pounds of the
same product that Chicago, Kansas
City and Omaha are sending: to
Puget Sound and Alaska. A rap
idly growing trade beyond the
Pacific is available for Portland
packers, if establishments Of ade-
qnate capacity were here to handle
it. Greatly increased stock yard
facilities and large packing-hoases
are'reqlred to handle this indus
try for which Portland offers ad-
vantages superior to those of any
ether city on the Pacific Coast.
The same paper, after having
made direct inquiries of and receiv-
ed replies from a large number Of
representative farmers in Eastern
Oregon and Eastern Washington,
is of the opinion that, with proper
facilities for handling the output,
and a market established on the
same stable basis that they are at
Missouri river points, the country
east of the Cascades would send to
Portland, annually, 2,5O0,000 hogs.
Continuing the article says;
1.-THE hog-feeding possibilities of
all that vast wheatraising territory
are unknown and impossible in the
corn raising and feeding states of
the East. Scores of Eastern Ore
gon wheatgrowers have given it as
their experience that every 100
acre wheat farm can produce so
hogs that viii weigh $50 pounds
each when 10 months old without
q dollars worth of merchantable
wheat having been put into, them.
these farmers last year sent TO
market carload after carload of fat
hogs that had spent their entire
life upon the volunteer fields ofrye,
wheat and barley and on the stub
BILE fields. Such men, by boring
wells, and fencing to restrain the
hogs, have solved the problem OF
saving the waste which modern
methods of wheat harvesting en-
tails. This experience means that
the many millions of acres ofwheat
land tributary to Portland may in
the near future send 2,000,0 900 hogs
to this market, even though eveey
bushel of merchantable wheat be
also sold. But sections of wheat
country that are a long distance
from railroad are already increas-
ing the hog output BY feeding good
wheat. Experience has shown
many wheatraisers that when hogs
are worth cents pound, wheat
can be marketed through those an
finals for Is cents bushel. Hogs
now bring 81 to 7 cents"
While part of the above may be
little in excess of reality there is
no doubt but that the establish
ment of extensive stock yards and
packing-houses at Portland would
provea powerful incentive toward
extending the hog industry of Ore
gon and. in this section at least,
that industry has already been
proven to be the best line of busi-
ness in which the farmer can en-
gage. Let Portland furnish the
packing-houses and stock yards
and Eastern Oregon may be de-
pended on to furnish her share of
fat hogs and cattle to keep them
running.