The Mena weekly star., 1909-11-18
Where Packing Houses Do Business

In any county where bermuda grass, red clover, alfalfa and worlds of wild forage plants grow green for nine months in the year. where corn, cowpeas, peanuts, Katfir corn, milo-maiz and other nutritious hog feed can be grown with little effort. and where an abundance of pure spring water is to be found on every farm. there is som ething wrong when the people have to depend upon the packing houses for their meat and lard. The question, therefore, very naturally arises, Where does the wrong come in? It certainly cannot be in the products of the country. in natural or climatic con ditions. and therefore must lie at the door of Mir. Farmer. One glar- ing fact must be admitted even by the most violent advoeate of the anti-hog law, and that is that the great bulk of the meat and lard consumed in Polk county comes from the packing houses. Here are some astounding figures that ob- tained from three packing house salesmen not long ago. One of them told me that during the first eight months of 1909 he had sold SlS2, 900 worth of meat, lard and other products, on the Kansas City Southern between Fort Smith and De Queen. Another stated that he had sold $1S4, 900 worth in the same territory and the other that he had sold $lS7, ,000 worth along the same route in the same length of time Over one half million dollars drained from territory less than l40 miles long, by three packing houses, and l there are several other similar con- cerns operating n the same district.
 One strenuous advocate of the free-range theory says he has been l in Arkansas 34 years, and has learned few things. He says he has eleven head of two-year-old hogs that will weigh l10 pounds, and venture the opinion that almost any hog raiser in the United States can beat that kind of a record in less than six months and it did not take him 34 years to find out how to do 1t. He also says he is going to feed his no pounders four bushels of corn each and that this corn will bring him $1.75 per bushel. Looks like pretty good argument on the face of it, but let us examine into 1t a little closer and ask the gentleman a few questions.
 How many hogs did you lose by the acorn-worm disease, vicious dogs, your neighbours shotgun and other causes while you were getting your bunch of no pounders togeth- CT?
 What is the value of your own crops and those of your neighbors that these hogs destroyed during the two years? How many of the eleven head now on hand are Dr. sEASED :?
 Now, Mr. "Backwoodser" have only been in Arkansas about half as long as you have, and l have learned something, too. 1 have kept my eyes and ears open all the time. when not asleep, and have learned these few things about your mast fed, razorback hogs.
 First. that the loss by various causes, from the time they are born until they weigh no pounds is fully 50 per cent.
 Second, that fully 50 per cent of those that survive are diseased and would not pass inspection in any packing house in the United States.
 Thrd, that no wild animals that ever roamed the forests of North America are so destructive to fenc- ing material and growing crops.
 Fourth, that they cause more dis cord between neighbors than the devil himself.
 Fifth, that there are only two effective methods of stopping their depredations, one being seven or eight strand barbed wire fence with each strand strung like a fiddle