23 



Eeferring to the progress made in the raising of hogs, as evidenced by the 

 number packed, the Price Current says : "Previous to 1861 the crop did not 

 vary over four or five hundred thousand hogs, being sometimes one or two 

 hundred thousand above, and then the same amounts below iu;o millions; but 

 in 1862 the packing run up to nearly ^/iree millions; in 1863 to over /our mil- 

 lions, and this season it has fallen off over three-quarters of a million." These 

 " rapid and extensive changes" it attributes to the effects of civil war upon 

 commerce ; to the rapid increase of settlements in the west, especially in 

 Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri. We think there are other causes, showing 

 that the aggregate increase in the production of hogs is not as great as here 

 intimated, a fact not to be lost sight of in determining the future condition 

 of this crop. Why should this great increase have manifested itself in 

 1862, when the price of pork was so ruinously low in 1861-62? In these 

 years, when hogs were sold by the farmers, there were no evidences of im- 

 provement to encourage the increased production of them. The prices of 

 mess pork in New York averaged, during the year, as follows: 1859, $16 38 

 per barrel; 1860, $17 98; 1861, $15 89; 1862, $12 28; and 1863, $U 40. 

 The price during 1860 was very encouraging, and as the increase of horses 

 and cattle had tended to over-production, the direction of stock increase 

 turned to hogs. Hence a large increase was made in 1860 and 1861. In the 

 fall of the last of these years, stock hogs in September were worth in the west 

 about one-third what they were in September, 1860. This was the result of 

 the war, chiefly, and parti}' from too great an increase. Many hogs were 

 held over, which swelled the number in 1862. And those packed were in- 

 creased by the fact that the heavy trade in live hogs to the south from Ken- 

 tucky, into which State they were taken from western States, was entirely 

 stopped by the war. These causes greatly increased the ratio of the 

 number packed over that of production, in 1862 and 1863, when compared 

 with that of former years. The falling off, therefore, in the past season was 

 not due to the want of corn alone, as intimated by the Price Current, when 

 it says : '-'Were it not for the bad failure of the corn crop last year, conse- 

 quent upon the cold ungenial summer, and the killing frost of July and 

 August,, there can be no doubt the pork crop the past season, would have 

 exceeded that of any previous season by half a viiUion of hogs." On the con- 

 trary, we think that with ordinary good crops of corn, there would have 

 been a falling off. The returns of the correspondents of this department 

 exhibit the fact, that the number in January last was 911,323 less than in 

 1859, in the loyal States, The number of fatted hogs last fall and winter 

 brought to the packing-houses was not much diminished by the want of corn, 

 as now appears, for these returns of our correspondents indicate that no 

 great number of hogs have been kept over. The Price Current very cor- 

 rectly remarks that "farmers, owing to the high price of corn, sold off all 

 the hogs they had which were in a condition fit to be disposed of, and the 

 high prices tempted them to sell even those they intended for home use, to 

 a very great extent, supposing that they would be able to buy the cured 

 pork cheaper afterward, no doubt." 



It is essential to understand the causes of the decrease of last season, 

 and, as seen here, they show that under the most favorable conditions of the 

 corn crop, hogs will be very scarce next season. Should peace return, and 

 the southern demand for live and packed hogs be resumed next year, or the 

 year following, there will be no more profitable stock than hogs. 



The following are the tables from the Price Current: 



