Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1910-05-17
WHAT ABOUT OUR MEAT
HIGH PRICES AND THE FUTURE
PORK SUPPLY.
Farmers Should Study Problems Sur
rounding Production and Market
ing of Hogs.

| factors govern the future market
prices? The present winter and spring
have found live hogs selling at figures
far in excess of all previous records,
and many well informed parties seem
to think that the top has not yet been
reached. The man who has pork to
sell is rejoicing; the man who has pork
to buy is complaining. Both are ask
ing the questions just mentioned.
Some people with more haste than
hard sense suggested meat boycott
as remedy for the high-cost evil, but
this idea has already died a most time
| ly death. The fact remains that our
American people have been and all
ways will be heavy meat eaters. When
the price of meat becomes exorbitant,
the only safe method of handling the
question is to study the problems sur
rounding the production and market
ing of this meat and then try to apply
remedy that will really help.
Must Look to First Cause.
Turning to the present high price of
pork, let us consider the first natural
question regarding this situation;
namely, the cause of these prices.
Magazine writers, and the like, will
tell you stories of the greed of the
packers, the enormous profits of the
retail butcher, the graft of the refrig-
orator car, and numerous other evils,
Without entering into any discussion
of these things, it must be remembered
that every one of them was in opera
ton two years ago when hogs were
selling at five dollars per hundred
weight Obviously then we must look
to other sources for the cause of the
eleven-cent hog. Let us see if present
conditions are not absolutely the re-
suit of that Interchangeable law of sup
ply and demand. AS a nation we eat
more pork every year, and it is safe to
say that there are less hogs in the I'm
tied States today than at any period
during the last ten years. Note one To-
cal example: Even with values at the
highest point in years, the receipts of
hogs at the South st. Paul market for
the first two months of this year were
sixty thousand less than for the same
period last year, and the run last year
was of only ordinary proportions. This
condition is prevailing at every market
back a couple of years to find the
cause for this. In the fall of 1907, pop
ularly referred to as the panic sea-
son." there was a short corn crop and
a big pig crop. This naturally made
high-priced corn and low-priced hogs.
Thousands of farmers, unable to see a
few days into the future, decided that
hog raising was improbable and i'm
mediately went out of the business,
putting on the market every hog on
the place. The great packing centers
were flooded with one-time brood sows
and great quantities of small shoats,
and the farmer sold his grain on the
market instead of through his hog
crop. The present shortage of hogs
followed as a natural sequence.
High Prices Deplete Brood Stock
The factors which govern future
prices are neither numerous nor hard
10 find. Along this line the following
communication was recently received
at this office and is of interest:
within a few weeks we have seen
the American record price for hogs.
Back of this fact, an economic opera
ton is likely to proceed which, instead
of reducing the price of hogs in the
future, will operate to increase 1t.
When the price of apples advances in
any considerable degree, it operates to
bring into existence more apple-bear-
ing trees. Exactly the opposite tenden-
cy arises when the prices of live stock
advance. This is due to the fact that
the high prices offered for the live
stock tend to induce owners to sell,
not only the animals which are not
useful for breeding but those which
are required for reproduction. In
other words, the tendency at this time
is to induce owners of brood sows to
part with them because of the high
price for hogs. The effect, will be seen,
is not like that which follows the ad-
vance in the price of apples, for the
annie producer can not sell his trees.
Recent receipts of sows at Chicago IN
dictate that better judgment is becom-
ing prevalent among stock raisers and
hog raisers, and that they have begun
TO realize that, in selling the sows,
they are selling the seed wheat of
future highly profitable crop; or il
may be that the diminution Of receipts
is due to the actual depletion Of the
number of sows fit for market
TT is interesting in this connection
to observe that Secretary of Agricult-
ure Wilson points out that depression
Of hog prices. caused by the panic of
1907, induced farmers to sell breeding
sows so as to diminish what, from
then existing prices, they were LED
to regard as a line Of improbable pro-
htable production. The present high
prices OF hogs Secretary Wilson indi-
Gates is largely due to the fact that
hog production has diminished by rea-
son of the scarcity OF breeding ami
mails. II is something like the irony
Of fate to be brought face to face with
the conditions which exist at this
time wherein high prices. instead OF
low prices in 1907. are at work and
tending to again impair the hog in
dustry by reducing the number OF
breeding sows. None Of those who
philosophically study the recent ad-
vances In the prices Of foOdstuffs hold
out confident hope that prices gener-
ally will materially decrease That be-
ing the fact. obviously. il becomes
highly SPACIOUS as business policy for
the farmer to retain his breeding ant
mails. especially sows which. in the
near future. are not only likely to in
crease in price. but actually 20 null
tiply as to value
sale Of SOWs Decreasing.
While the precaution suggested IN
his article is a good one. there Is but
little danger from the source mention
u. as tfre facts do not show that any
reat number of brood soEs are be-