Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1910-06-30
/ he
The Hoo As q Money Maker.

DDS! Converting 'yaller" corn into pork
has them all handicapped. No wonder
the corn-belt farmer, having paid OH
and burned the mortgage, Is puy1ns
western land and running a motor car.
In Ireland the pig is known as the
jintleman that pays the rint." on TINS
side of the Atlantic he is responsible
for swollen bank deposits.
Offer an investor stock in a manu-
featuring plant with a dividend pay
ing capacity Of 10 per cent annually
and he would take its securities avidiy
at par, but as a manufacturing plant
a pasture full Of hogs has vastly su-
perior earning capacity. A healthy
hog can pass a 50-cent bushel OF corn
thru its digestive apparatus, convert IL
into $1.25 worth of pork and cash II III
at the stock yards without discount or
collection expense 1t is not neces-
sary for the hog to go to market TO flno
purchaser, as persistent bidders keep
rural telephone wires hot night and
day endeavoring to get possession OF
him.
Conversion Of so cents worth OF
corn into $1.25 worth of hog means
profit of 125 per cent. OF course,
the hog has not always been equal 10
this performance and there is no as
surance of per1nanency of such pront
ratio, but corn and hog markets are in
such relative condition at present that
growers who had sufficient foresight
to stick to the hog two years ago, when
those with less acumen abandoned the
national mortgage litter as money
losing proposition, are now reaping
their reward 1t is trade history, how
oil, mott ia
board. During the period of American
agricultural history when corn was
barely worth hauling to market and In
the west 1t was used for fuel as an
economic measure the hog placidly COW
cred his ribs with meat and did his
part in settling up the corn belt. He
has built railroads. created wealthy
communities, founded banks and en-
riched the nation in other ways. With
out the hog the great fortunes amassed
by the packers would have been i'm
possible.
An Iowa banker with about $1,000
600 of deposits in his institution as
serted the other day that Is per cent
of it was hog money" and in the
same town are three other banks. the
managers of which could tell the same
story.
when load OF hogs is disposed
Of" said this banker, ''the buyers
check is always deposited by the grow
er and by keeping track of this money
I found that 70 per cent of our de-
posts represented the sale of hogs.
When farmer sells hogs every cent
is gain, while in the case OF a load
of fat steers first cost Of the stock
cattle must be deducted. An old fell
low who deposits with us returned
from Chicago the other day with a
check for $500 the proceeds of the
sale of load of hogs.
"Si, how much of that was clear
profit, I asked. Every dern cent"
he responded.
You can't figure it that way" l
argued Cost of feed and care, to
gether with other items of expense
must be deducted from gross returns
to ascertain net profit"
Did I have that $500 a year ago."
he asked.
l agreed that he didn't.
well I have it now and 1t didn't
cost me anything to get it, he r0plied
with the air Of a man who knew what
he was talking about.
81 never paid out cent on 'em.
Like Topsy they just growed'' l
had to stay on the farm anyway and
didn't l have the use of 'em while
they was around?"
Just now an unprecedented condi-
ton exists. The country is long on
corn and short on hogs. Back in 1902
it was a corn crop failure that boost
ed the price Of fat hogs. Having no
feed light hogs and pigs were sacri-
feed: now pigs are commanding as
much, or more money than fat backs.
AS grower said: Anyone who
would sell healthy pig now ought
to have his head examined. A pig
on full feed Of corn can make money
faster than. a slot machine on an ex-
cursion boat"
Owing to his phenomenal earning
capacity the hog is getting good treat
ment now. No longer is he the par
iah of the farm. 1t was Charley
Cooper" the Chicago hog sharp, who,
rebuk;ng a man who had rode across
Iowa and Illinois by day light and
declared he did not see single hog
from the car window, said: you
didn't look in the right place. They're
keeping the pigs in the parlor and the
kids in the yard now" Cooper also
asserts that porcine dentistry Is prac-
ticed, displaying gold filled equine
tusk proof OF his assertion. His latest
is that one of his Kansas acquaint-
ances having a valuable boar sick
summoned a veterinary who decided
that a blood TRANSMISSION operation was
necessary to save the animals life
The farmer and his hired man prompt
ly furnished the necessary Juice"
The query is, how long will present
market conditions exist? AS well try
II oanswer the oft-propounded query
as to the identity Of the man who
struck Billy Patterson. Present prices
will not be durable; they are too
tempting, furnishing incentive for pro-
duction that means more hogs in the
future. But most trade experts are
confident that at least two years must
elapse before production can catch up
with consumption. The corn belt prop
er Is the home Of the hog Of COM
merce. In the wheat belt not enough
pork is produced to satisfy local con
sumption and the cotton belt buys 71a
per cent Of the enormous quantity OF
hog product 1t consumes annually OF
northern packers. A Louisiana man
was asked recently why the south did
not raise its own pork and keep mil
| lions Of dollars at home. Cant dc
it, was his emphatic response. The
coIored brother catches the pig and
cooks them SO that they never get
-, hn1CO