REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. V 



Right through the period of depression hogs have been selling .it 

 considerably higher prices relatively than corn. This has enabled 

 farmers in the great corn-producing States to secure much higner 

 prices for their corn by feeding it to hogs than they could get by 

 selling it as corn. Thirty-five to forty per cent of our corn crop is 

 fed to hogs. Hog prices continue relatively higher than corn. 

 This is stimulating hog production and there is danger that it aiay 

 be overdone another year. 



On the Tvhole it has been a fairly satisfactory year for cattle 

 feeders, the prices for fat cattle holding gratifying levels. Growers 

 of cattle in the range country, and especially those who have mar- 

 keted inferior grades of cattle, have not been so fortunate. 



Credit conditions have vastly improved. Interest rates have fallen 

 as compared with a year and 18 months ago. The banks in the 

 agricultural sections are in far better condition to serve their farmer 

 customers and there seems reason to believe that this condition will 

 continue to improve. 



The greatly accelerated movement of farmers, and especially 

 farmers' sons, from the farms to the cities and industrial centers is 

 one of the hopeful signs. It is not possible to measure this movement 

 with absolute accuracy, but our best estimates indicate that during 

 the months of July, August, and September twice as many persons 

 left the farms for the cities as normally. This movement is in direct 

 response to the willingness of the buying public to pay much higher 

 prices for labor in the building trades, manufactures, and industries 

 than for labor on the farm. When fair relationships between agri- 

 cultural and other prices are restored and the capable worker can 

 market his labor on the farm, whether by working for himself or for 

 another farmer at wages which will compare favorably, all things 

 considered, with the wages he is able to get in the city, the movement 

 will again become normal. 



Another hopeful sign is the increasing willingness and desire of 

 people engaged in industry, commerce, and finance to help bring 

 about a more favorable adjustment for the farmer. Such people are 

 coming to realize more and more the menace to themselves in con- 

 ditions so unfavorable to agriculture as those of the past three years. 

 Their attitude toward the farmer has changed from that of a benevo- 

 lent paternalism such as was so much in evidence during the 10 years 



