Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1910-03-12

4 farm grown corn to fatten them, IN tne
/ fall. charging them with what L could
have sold the corn for. On both those
years / was able at hog KILN time
to buy pork by the side for between
forty and fifty cents a hundred pounds
| less than my pork had cost me to
| raise. That is, on the years in ques-
| ton, 1 had fed those pigs three times
a day. had given them barrels of skim
milk. had helped in the dirty and dis
| agreeable work of butchering, all for
nothing, and had paid between forty
and fifty cents a hundred in money for
| the privilege of doing it.
The first year ! didn't believe my
1 own figures. L couldn't accept the
| idea that my pork producing neigh
/ bors were losing money for the sake
| of having a lot of hogs around. SO
| l studied up their methods: watched
| the way they worked; / recast my
| form of bookkeeping with my own
| piggery-and the result was a rather
| worse showing than the first time. l
| got prices from all the pork buyers
within radius of twenty-five miles,
and they all agreed within half a cent.
Not a single one of them would pay
me for my pork what it had cost me
to raise it; cost me in money outright
remember; not including labor ana
bother and UNREASONABLE farm wastes
fed out. That was the time l stopped
raising pigs. Gradually other farmers
began to discover the same general
state of facts. They, too, stopped rails
ing pigs. I have kept no census of
hoggery in my town, but 1 feel safe in
saying that there are not being rals-
ed in it, now, one-half the number of
swine that were raised in 1T ten and
fifteen years ago. We all OF US got
tired of paying out 500 on hogs to
get $50 back for pork haven't the
slightest doubt that the same motive
has actuated farmers in other parts OF
the country
The present Ugh prices of pork and
lard and other hog products is due to
the scarcity of hogs That IS seif-eVl-
dent. The scarcity of hogs is due to
the fact that farmers aren't raising as
many as they used to. That is, like
wise, self evident. Farmers aren't rails
ing them because. at the prices for
merly ruling, 1t didn't pay TO raise
them And it didn't pay to raise them
because the great packers, controlling
the markets and making the price at
which they should buy as well as the
cutting that buying price down and
holding it down, till they had pretty
near stopped the ahog growing bust
ness. It's simply another case OF kill
ing the goose that laid golden eggs. |
Now, these same packers, too coward
" or too disingenuous to admit their
plain responsibility, are. trying by
their own utterances and those OF their
consumers that the farmers are filling
their pig pockets with money extort-
ed from the needs of the poor.
Of course, the farmer who has hogs
this year can make some money if he
sells them at S10.15 per hundred. live
weight. Even at that rate, he won't
make I'D, in one year, what he has
lost in previous years when the pig
pens Of the land being full Of porkers,
the packing trust compelled him to
give it his pork for nothing and pay
it a bonus for taking the stuff.
The chances are, furthermore, that, |
seeing the present unduly high price
of pork, a vast number of farmers will |
go in for hogs this spring. So many |
will want young pigs that the cost of
the few to be had will go up in a bal |
loon. thus increasing the expense OF
the ultimate pork; the quotations for
bran and meal show that the feed
bills will be something scare-y, and, if
the natural result follows in an over
production of pork. the selling price,
which has lately been going up like
rocket, will come down like a stick.
Somebody's head will get cracked
when it falls.
Judging the future by the past, feel
reasonably safe in predicting that the
head which gets cracked won't be that
of the packer. It will be either the
farmers or the consumers head which
will feel the stick. The packer is al
together too keen a fellow to get any
thing on his Uranium, so long as he
can find somebody's umbrella in a
hallway to hold over himself. He'll
undoubtedly stand under its, shelter, |
then as now and point to tie owner
of the umbrella. who really has the
best right to its protection, and who |
is taking whatever falls bareheaded
while searching for his property as
the man who is just getting the pun |
ishment deserved.
When Adam was called UP to an
swer for breaking the rules, he said it
was Ewes fault. Then both united to
lay it on the serpent. I should like |
to hear the snakes version of the |
story
THE FARMER.