Evening star., 1932-07-03
HOG PRICE GAINS
CHEER MIDWEST
Iowa Farmers See Hope Of
Better Times in Recent
Advances.
Dispatch to The Star.

| Special Dispatch to The Star.
DES MONIES, Iowa, July Hog
prices and spirits are rising in Iowa.
Hogs that on the 1st of June brought
a $3.40 top price are now selling as high
as $5.15 on the Chicago market. The
average price was $4.70 a hundred
weight.
This increase of S1.75s for each 100
! pounds Of hogs marketed points the way
| to tolerable conditions for Iowa farm
ers, who market 100000 hogs an
nually and who had been looking for
| ward to inordinately depressed prices
Tor the 1882 Summer marketing season.
! Whether the present prices will hold
up or whether they will bring such an
| influx Of hogs into the market as to
break it is stin problematical. 1t ap-
/ pears likely, however, that the market
| Will hold at least for the Summer sea-
son.
Government Estimate.
This opinion is based on the asSump-
| ton that the recent rise is caused by
shortage in the estimated Summer hcg
supply. There Is also the assumption
that farmers in Iowa, and elsewhere,
are so badly in need Of money that
regardless of price-they are putting
their hogs on the market as soon as
they are fit, and that there does not
exist supply of marketable animals
to be rushed to Chicago
1t is known and admitted that one
OF the most important factors in de-
pressing the price of hogs early this
Summer season is the United States
Department of Agriculture's estimate
that the 1881 Fall pig crop in Iowa
alone was rs per cent above the 1880
crop.
Based in part on this estimate and
IN part on the reports of local agents
packers then estimated an increase of
Is per cent in the number of hogs to be
marketed in the May to october Sum-
mer marketing season
1t now seems that both these esti-
mates were over the mark.
There appear to be in Iowa few, II
any, more hogs to go on the 1882 Sum-
mer market than were offered last year.
The 1881 Summer Chicago top price
he'd around the Sc mark.
Whether the 1882 Summer market
VIII go to Sc or above is, of course,
purely matter of conjecture
Whether 1t does or not there is al
ready evident in Iowa a favorable re-
action to the recent rises in hog prices.
The hog market is a pretty certain
barometer Of the Iowa situation.
Turn in Right Direction.
When hog prices are up, sales are up
and merchant and farmer enjoy at least
a relative prosperity.
Although the recent upturn in the
hog market does not guarantee pros
perity for Iowa farmers, it is a turn in
the right direction and away from the
disastrous low prices Of the last six
months.
IL Is generally assumed that 40
to-l" basis provides assured profits for
hog feeder. That is, a hog raiser can
fatten hogs profitably on corn at 81
bushel If he can get $40 a hundred
pounds for his hogs.
Corn today in Iowa is selling on the
farm for 20 and 81 cents a bushel.-
hogs are selling (on the farm for
S425. On this basis hog today brings
per hundred pounds more than 90 times
the cost OF bushel Of corn, instead of
only 10 times.
Another bright spot is that corn is
quite plentiful at 20 cents and the
prospects for the 1882 crop are fairly
good. The chief drawback is that
there has been too much rain.
The rain has sent the corn far
beyond the knee hign by the Fourth
Of July mark in parts of the State,
buG ~ also mas Deen boon 10 weeds, |
as farmers have been unable to culti-
Vate the rain-soaked fields.
But not even the weeds can undo
the psychological good that has been
done Iowa by the recent changes in the
hog market.
1t is always dangerous to juggle
f1gureS-and such as the following are
never free from fallacy-but 1t is in
teresting to note what the recent in
creases in hogs might mean to Iowa S
income in the next II months.
Effect on Income.
Early in June Iowas $4,000 900 hogs
(the average yearly production) were
worth S8.16 each, sold at a weight of
24O pounds, for S340 per hundred
pounds.
Today at s470 per hundred (the av-
erage price yesterday the same hogs
are worth $ll.28 each.
This is an. increase of 1912 an
animal
And this 1912 multiplied by 49,
000,0 hogs is an increase of more
than $4,000, 000
And $40 10000 is no small item to
put on the right side of the ledger
these days.
(copyright, 1892, by the North American
Newspaper Alliance, Inc)