The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1916-07-14
THE HOG INDUSTRY.

One week AFTER the TeCOTu-DlCdhlhS oIoAAA
the Crop Improvement Association got
together to develop the hog industry OF
this region
Several marketing plans were suggested.
One was to consign the hogs to reliable
commission men in northern cities. An
other plan advocated selling the hogs to
local merchants or spectators who, in
turn, would dispose of them to the north
srn packer Still third plan advocated the
establishment of small packing plant and
curing the meat in Pensacola.
The three plans are not antagonistic by
any means they all work towards the same
end-namely, more and better hogs for
West Florida, and greater prosperity to
the entire community. Each plan is feast
bic, each has been found by experience to
be successful.
In region so afflicted with the credit
evil as the south still is, it would be eco
nomically unwise to urge any system that
might put the farmer too much in the mer-
chants power If the merchant, buying
up hogs, pays the farmers cash on deliv
| cry, the plan would be a good one; but if
the farmer is forced to trade it OUT he
will lose the greatest benefit of a cash crop
namely, cheap buying and lower cost
of living.
Credit is the curse of the south. The
twin-evil of the one crop system, its per-
nicious effects are being bitterly felt now
that the one .crop-cotton- threatened
by the boil Weevil. The merchant is as
much victim as the customer The mer-
chant, forced to buy on credit, must pay
more; he then adds the bookkeeping and
interest charges, and percentage to pro-
tect himself against loss. The customer
probably pays twenty per cent more than
he would be charged if he had the cash.
If the farmer gets real money for his
hogs he can pay the merchant real money
for supplies, and the merchant can pay real
money for stocks, and there will be a saw
ing all down the line. If on the other hand
the merchant tries to finance the farmer
on the credit system, there will be but a
continuation of the o1d-time fland-to-
mouth existence, with everybody haunted
by due bills, and his property in his wife's
name
The better plan, therefore, is to de
velop the packing plant idea; PROPOSE
ton, by the way, which received the most
favorable consideration at Wednesday
meeting.
The idea is to arrange for a small cool
ing room, to be enlarged to meet require
ments. After being chilled, the pork will
be cured, at cost something like cent a
pound, and the meat can then compete with
. the imported ham and bacon for which we
send hundreds of thousands of dollars
away every year.
There are number of such small pack
ing plants throughout the country and
they are a success. They were not estab
lished in Stock centers; they were located
IN towns that were almost bankrupt, where
the piney woods Razorback was monarch
of all he surveyed credit-ridden commune
ties where everybody did business under
such an elaborate system of notes anc
debts that if any one person asked for Z
: dollar and insisted on it, he whole eco
nonic framework tottered and fell.
That hogs and feed can be raised al
: cheaply here in West Florida as anywher,
l else in the United States, we all know. anC
it only remains for us to open the door t.
opportunity. Our progressive merchant.
and farmers realize how rapidly the stool
industry will grow, given little encourage
| ment, from results in Mou1trie, Ca, wher
: small packing plant has more thar
doubled the hog output in one year. Every
body in Moultrie now has cash. plenty O
cash; and the banks, instead of borrowin.
: money from New York to finance tn,
farmers, are actually advertising larg
| sums to loan. What man has done maj
can do, and Moultrie's prosperity will b
: Pensacola's if we but follow the sam
methods