The Butler weekly times., 1918-04-11
LIGHT ON THE HOG-CORN
PROBLEM
Ratio of 13 to I, Effective on 1918
Spring Pigs Puts Premium on
Wise Feeding.

spring rigs PutS premium on
Wise Feeding.
Farmers from all parts of the
country are writing u.s." states Melvin
Green of the meat division OF the u.
S. Food Administration, telling what
they think of the hog-production out
look. The l3-to-I-ratio policy re-
ceves general approval. Practically
all agree that they feel safe to go
ahead and raise all the hogs they can,
provided they can actually count on
getting I3 times the price of bushel
of corn for every 100 pounds of hog
they grow.
The minimum of $3.50 for the av
erage of packers droves in Chicago,
which the Food Administration, on
Nov. 3. promised to do its best to
maintain until further notice, has not
been generally so we'll understood as
has the I,3-to-Iratio policy. The
price under the latter is to apply to
pigs farrowed this spring. The $3.50
price does not pretend to be based
upon a l,3-to-I-ratio. 1t was intended
rather to let farmers know that prices
would be kept stable and treacherous
market breaks prevented.
Here is a mistak ke which many arc
making in their figuring on the hog
and corn situation. A man will write,
1 fed my hogs on corn which | could
have sold for $3.50 a bushel and then
sold the hogs for $I4 hundred. IT
l had sold my corn would have re-
ceived $Io.5o because, according to
the 13-to-I ratio, there were l3 bush
els of corn in every 100 pounds OF
hog, and I3 times $I.5o equals $Io.5o.
Therefore am losing $3.50 on every
100 pounds of hogs | sell, with the
work and risk thrown in Now. this
man is making not merely one mis-
take in his reckoning. He is making
whole row OF them.
I'm the first place, the finding OF the
committee of hog experts did not say
and did not mean that it takes !, }
bushels of corn to make 100 pounds OF
hog. The Il-to1-ratio i'll reality OF
premium on hogs over the amount OF
corn necessary to grow them under
average conditions.
AN average of six feeding trials at
the Missouri Nebraska, Iowa and In
diana experiment stations reported
in Purdue University extension bulle-
tin No. 3o). gives the amount of corn
required to make 100 pounds OF pork
as $50. pounds. or slightless less than
1o.5 bushels. This is for corn ted
alone, under drylot conditions. Here
is premium of rs bushels to pay for
the feeding and the risks Besides
fertility is maintained by feeding the
corn on the farm.
I'm addition to this. the farmer who
lets his hogs follow cattle and turns
into pork everything on his iarnl
which would otherwise have gone t"
waste is getting part OF his hogs
weight as a gift. He can produce
another large percentage OF every 100
pounds by various forage crops, many
of which, at the same time, improve
HIS SOll. tANOi ulilS " thN 'SN'~ii' W.
which the farmer can manage to grow
his hogs on other and cheaper things |
than corn, he can increase his profits
over the normal cornied premium.
"IIere is another point which iar"-
ers are apt to overlook. 1t is only be
cause 8, per cent of the corn crop Is
fed on the farm and just Is per cent
is put on sale that corn brings the
price it does. Just stop and think
what would happen to the price OF
corn if most farmers tried to sell their
corn as corn, instead OF feeding 1t.
Instead OF Is per cent, or less than
one fifth of the entire crop, gong on
to the market, we would have three
or four times the amount that the
trade normally takes flooding the
market. and corn would go to the
prices that prevailed in the 'oos The
price of corn depends upon the TACT.
that four-fifths of the crop is fed and
never reaches the market to break 1t
China Journal.