The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1916-01-27

sons" and nearly all who took the
trouble to write anything about it had
other remedies that seemed better to
them. In recent issue of the Berk-
shire World, Mr.. Bohosky, of the I'm
ion Meat company, of Portland, takes
up the question in a very able manner
and says many true things in regard
to the hog situation.
But before / say more about his ar
ticle want to relate an incident that
comes to my mind: Two men We're
crossing a large field one day when
they were suddenly confronted with
big burly bull, who had danger signs
all over him. One of the men climbed
up a nearby tree in hurry while the
other one dropped into a convenient
hole close by, and the bull passed on
without harming either one. But he
had not gone far before the man in
the hole bobbed halfway out of the
ground and Mr.. Bull, looking round,
made another dash in that direction
and of course the man dropped back
into the hole again and the bull went
past. This operation was repeated
several times, much to the DISGUST of
the man in the tree who at last, in not
very choice language, asked the man
in the hole why he did not stay down
in the hole and let the bull depart.
"That is all very nice from your
point of view," said the man in the
hole. "But if you were where you
could see this bear down here you
might think different"
From Mr.. Bohosky's viewpoint it is
only question of time when every
thing will be red and rosy. 1t is evil
dent that Mr.. Bohosky thinks hogs
can be raised in the Pacific Northwest
as cheaply as in the Middle West and
he, no doubt, dreams Of the large and
expanding business that will be done
by the packers from the Pacific coast
points in the years to come in COM
petition with the Middle West. We
must believe this from what he says
and from the further fact that the
Portland yards are being enlarged and
capacity augmented for the purpose of
taking care of this increased hog bus
mess.
But if I am not badly mistaken, the
rancher who has had experience in
the hog business the last few years
has an entirely different view point of
the situation. He went into the hog
business with the idea that raising and
fattening hogs here would cost some
more that it did in the middle-west
but believing no more hogs would be
raised here than would be consumed
here and that prices should remain
high enough to compensate him for
the additional cost of producing. In
other words that the freight from
Omaha here would have the same re-
suit as tariff in protecting the in
dustry. He thinks that he has now
discovered that this "tariff" has been
utilized entirely by the packer; in
other words, the price of the finished
hog product is still selling at Omaha
price, plus freight-but that packers
are only paying Omaha price-some
times less-for the live hogs. They
think it is another case where the
tariff benefits are all absorbed by the
manufacturers instead of the producer
as so often turns out to be the case in
our national tariff regulations.
But possibly the question of the tar
if and who should benefit by it is not
all there is to the hog situation. To
my mind the question: Can we pro-
duce and sell hogs on this side of the
Rockies in competition with the other
side? is the most important. While
the packers have concluded that we
can, am equally certain that large
majority Of the ranchers who have
tried it during the last few years have
arrived at contrary conclusion. To
get down to brass tacks believe / am
quite safe in saying that 300 Of the
ranchers now engaged in the hog bust
ness are not in position to raise their
own grain for finishing them and must
buy it from outside sources. 1t is
quite true that corn can be raised all
right in limited area of central
Washington, but great many Of the
ranches are not large enough to per-
NIT the use Of much ground for this
purpose. / believe it is also true that
another twenty per cent Of our hogs
are located in what is known as "dry"
farms where there is a total absence
of forage or any suitable arrange
ment for pasturage, and these farmers
are just as badly handicapped. In
other words not over twenty per cent
of the farmers in Eastern Washington
now raising hogs are prepared to stay
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