AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS. 619 



THE PORK-PACKING OF THE AVEST. 



Tlie Cincinnati Price Current of April 6 contains the full returns of the pork 

 packed in the west during the past season. The hog product is an interest of 

 so great magnitude that we give room for the summary statement of these re- 

 turns. 



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

 number packed, the Price Current says : 



"Previous to 18(51 the crop did not vary over four or five hundred thousand hogs, being 

 sometimes one or two hun(hed thousand above, and then the same amounts below" Of o mil- 

 lions ; but in 18t)'2 the packing run up to nearly three millions ; in 18(53 to over /oh/- millions, 

 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 tliink there are other causes showing that 

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

 mated — 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 1S61-'G2? In these years, when hogs 

 were sold by the farmers, there were no evidences of improvement to encourage 

 the increased production of them. The prices of mess pork in New York av- 

 eraged, during the year, as follows: 1859, S16 38 per barrel ; 1860, S17 98; 



1861, $15 89; 1862,812 28; and 1863, 814 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 titrncd 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 partly from too 

 great an increase. Many hogs were held over, Avhich swelled the number in 



1862, And those packed were increased by the fact that the heavy trade in 

 live hogs to the south from Kentucky, into Avhich State they were taken from 

 western States, was entirely stopped by the war. These cavises greatly in- 

 creased 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 com crop last year, consequent upon the cold, im" 

 genial suuuner, 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 million of hogs.^' 



On the contrary, we think that with ordinary good crops of corn, there would 

 have been -AfaUmg off. The returns of the correspondents of this department ex- 

 hibit 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 flill and winter brought to 

 the packing houses was not much diminished by the want of corn, as now ap- 

 pears, for these returns of our correspondents indicate that no great number of 

 hogs have been kept over. The Price Current very correctly remarks that 

 " farmers, owing to the high price of corn, sold off all the hogs they had Avhich 

 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 : 



