The Mena weekly star., 1909-12-16
Meat Shortage Cannot Be Made Up
 From Acorns.
TO tbe Editor of the Star.

CT how little their pork has been costing them, but in every in- stance they have failed to say a word about what their hogs C st their neig h bors m fencing mate rials, crops and vexation of spirit. There are two sides even to the free range side of this question, and one is very aggravating side, as 1 have shown iu previous communications. The farmer iu this county who is striving hard to grow good crops, raise good breed of hogs has little protection against his neighbor who is shiftless about his farming and depends upon the range for hls meat. We all know what the law Is and we must all admit that it is lame law. We want better one. We want 10 take our places in the ranks of the pro- gressiye farmers of other states who have long since discovered that ther. IS neither pleasure nor pr. ii, l raisilg scrub hogs or any other kind of stock. We want 10 turn our backs Ia the past and our faces to the future. No use in going back 20 years in order to fiud some argument for the free range proposition. Let us raj her try to figure out how we are going to get meat enough to feed the people ot the United States 20 years hence. It will certainly not come from the acorn crops. It IS not even necessary to look ahead so far. In the very beginning of this discussioa 1 asked ihis question: "How are you fixed for your meat for l9l0?" The top notch of the market was reached h Chicago the other day when prime hogs on foot went to SS.40 per 100, and reports from all the markets show great shortage on hogs. Hog cholera Is sweeping some ot the western states, particularly iu Kansas, where farmers have lost over S2 GOO. 900 worth of hogs during tie present year, nd the disease is still spreading with fearful rapidily. Never in the history of this dread scourge has the dis ease appe red in such yirulent and deadly form. and the situa- atiJn Is assuming such alarming proportions that a petition will probably be presented to congress during the present term asking for an appropriation of million dollars to fight the disease. Sc we find that we are confronted with serious proposition on the meat question, and 1t behooves us to prepare for futare contin- gei cies.
 The discussion was not started with view of stirring up strife and contention, but for the pur- pose of seriously considering the general provement of tue farm CTS of Polk county, nor alone on the hog law matter, but on many other points. AS one correspoud- ent expresses it, there are two sides to the free range theory, and we are all striving to arrive al some conclusion that will result in the greatest good to the great est number. The same cores pondent says his hogs this year will weigh l50 pounds each aud that they will cost him $500 each, which will make his meat cost him 315 cents per pound, and as there was no mast this year his hogs must have been corn fed. He also says there is no kind of pasture for hogs that he knows of except clover and alfalfa; and l am surprised to hear hog raiser, and free range man at that, make such statement; for the only real argument the anti.hog law advocates have for their side of the question is in the fine wild pasture that hogs get in this country during the spring and summer months. In fact the Jap anese clover that covers every
 nook and cranny, every old de- . serted field, the highways and by ways, furnishes hog pasture equal to tame clover. You never see a poor hog, or any other kind of , domestic animal, in Polk county Iin the summer time. No, sir, II } is during the winter time that , they starve, and right here want to ask this question: What
 is to be gained by having youT [ hogs and cattle iu fiue condition
 durinr the summer months and mere skeletons in winter? l have , seen cattle men pay Sl per bushe
 for corn and 36 per cen. for mon 2 ey to keep their steers from los ! ing the grass fat they had gained during the summer. Polk county 9 farmers can have plenty of feet s for winter by working for it.
 T. P. Fulton. Cove. Ark. Dec. ', 1909.