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For the month of October, salable hog receipts at 12 public markets vere 

 only 50 percent as large as in October I9UI1.. The situation is improving slightly as 

 Indicated by the following figures: For the 12 months October to September, salable 

 receipts at these 12 public markets were only U7 percent of the comp€u:^ble volume for 

 the previous year; for October, 50 percent; end. for the week ending November 5; 52 

 percent. During the past year, however, average weights have greatly increased. For 

 the month of October, the average weight of bcoT'Ows and gilts at Chicago was 278 

 pounds compared with 226 pounds in October I9W1. As a rough but inaccurate basis of 

 conrpcLrison, we might assume that all receipts at Chicago were barrow and gilts . Mul- 

 tiplying by the average weights for barrows and gilts, the poundage of hogs received 

 at Chicago in October 19lf5 would then be down only 57 percent from the previous year. 

 If, in the meantime, laare hogs were shipped direct, the total available supply would 

 show a still smaller decline. Receipts of salable cattle at 12 markets in October 

 were up 7 percent for the year, calves were up 1^ percent €uid sheep and lainbs down I8 

 percent. Sales of feeder and stocker steers at k markets, Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha, 

 and St. Paul, were down less than one percent for October compcLred with a year earlier. 

 For the month of September, the number of stocker and feeder cattle and calves received 

 in 8 corn-belt states was down 8 percent. The number of stocker and feeder sheep and 

 lambs received in these states was up 21 percent. 



Rye supplies short . The United States Department of Agriculture reports 

 that the outlook for rye in the next year indicates a world supply short of demands 

 with U. S. production insufficient to pennit exports in an amount that will materially 

 improve shortages in European rye- consuming nations. The commercial stocks of rye in 

 the United States are only one-third as large as the small stocks on hand a year ago. 

 Canada reports short stocks and a small crop being harvested. The world rye crop for 

 I9I4.5-U6 was estimated at 1,^25 million bushels, 8 percent under the preceding year. 



Stocks of grain October 1 . Wheat stocks on October 1 in the Ifeited States 

 were about k percent smaller than a year earlier. Stocks of corn were up kO percent. 

 Oats reserves were up kO percent^ bcurley, down h percent; rye, down 38 percent; and 

 combined stocks of these five grains totaled 3,071 million bushels, of which 2,353 mil- 

 lion bushels were on farms and 718 million bushels were in off- farm storage. 



Wheat crop up 7 percent . According to the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture estimate' released Noveinber 5* the wheat crop harvested this year will be 1,150 

 million bushels. That will be the largest of record and will exceed the previous 

 record set in 19^ by nearly 7 percent. Wheat exports are expected to run as high as 

 325 million bushels. Before the war we had to use special devices to export as much 

 as 100 million bushels. Farm stocks on October 1 were the second largest on record, 

 but disappearance of farm stocks of wheat in the period July to September were re- 

 ported to have been the highest ever reported. Very little wheat had been placed under 



10€U1. 



Prices of farm products . As of October 15> farmers received on the average 

 .11^ percent of parity for products sold. The general level of prices received by farm- 

 ers was 199 percent of the August I909 to July 191**^ average. Between September 15 aiA 

 October 1% prices rose two points . Parity prices reached another new 25-year high as 

 prices paid by fgurmers for commodities, interest and taxes advanced another point to 

 175 percent of the base period, ^^gher crop prices accounted for practically all of 

 ^ythe up-tum between September 15 and October 15 . Prices received by farmers in the 

 'Jnlted States are listed on the next page as a percentage of parity or comparable 

 prices: 



