Evening star., 1933-12-24
BUYING TO OBOOST
PORK CONSIDERED
Administration Sees Price
DisIocation Due to As
Cent Corn Loans.
Nv TIRE Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press
Purchase by the Federal Government
of surplus pork, now in storage, for dis
tribution to the needy, is under consid-
Grafton by the Farm Administration In
an effort to boost pork prices.
Officials believe the balance OF prices
between pork and corn has Deen thrown
out of alignment by the establishment
of corn loans at As cents per 'ushel,
while hogs remain at about $3.50 per
hundred pounds.
In the normal price relationship hogs
should now be selling on the Chicago
market at about $3.50 per hundred, ON
cials pointed out, or corn should pe
selling at 35 cents per buShel.
The corn loans, however, had the
effect of pegging corn prices at 40 cents,
since farmers would store and seal their
corn to obtain the AS cents per busneI
loan, rather than feed it to low"pr'ced
hogs
Farmers Loss Prevented.
Under provisions of the corn loan
contract farmers cannot lose by accept
ing the Government credit or loans Of
banks on their stored corn.
If, on maturity date of their notes,
corn is selling at more than AS cents
per bushel, they can sell it, Oay of their
indebtedness and pocket the balance.
If the price is below As cents they
can discharge their Indebtedness by
surrendering the corn
Restoration of the normal corn-hog
ratio can be established by either rslS'
ing the price of hogs or lowering the
price of corn, officials saio.
In the course of normal events this
relationship, they pointed out, would
come into balance naturally because as
farmers refrained from feeding high
priced corn to low-priced hogs the
supply of hogs coming to market would
gradually diminish and prices would
rise
Because of the demand of farmers
in the Midwest for speedy relief, how
ever. some farm administrators feel
there is need for re-eStablishing the
normal ratio of artificial means.
Lowering the price of corn is inprac-
ticaI at this time officials in charge Of
the corn-hog program believe, because
1t would mean & recession from the
general policy of farm relief.
The emergency pig-buying campaign
OF last Summer cannot be relied on TO
help because its effects will not be felt
until after January ! and not fully
until March. 1t was said pigs which
were left on farms at the end of that
campaign will not reach market weight
until about that time.
Pork Surplus in Storage.
One major factor holding down hog
prices at the present time is believed
by officials to be the oversupply of pork
products in storage. During the first
II months of 1888 the slaughter of
hogs and beef cattle was 900,000,000
pounds above the same period last year
without a similar increase in consump-
ton, the Bureau of Agricultural Eco
nomicS reported.
The administration previously pur-
chased pork for the needy following the
pig-buying campaign and recently
bought $4,000 Geo pounds of butter
through the Dairy Marketing Corpo-
ration in order to cut down the butter
surplus and at the same time provide
butter to the poor.
How soon a new campaign could be
tnaugurated was problematical, officials
said, since it may have to wait until
further appropriations for administra-
tion Of the farm adjustment act can be
made by Congress.