GENERAL FARM PROGRA^I 1181 



merits there. That means that a minimum of 1,500,000 sales made 

 at the stockyards would need to be checked before checks could be 

 mailed. 



That would be just a small beginning. 



The official records show that last year 59.8 percent of the hogs 

 slaughtered under Federal inspection were purchased at points other 

 than at the organized stockyards. That would mean 28,473,000 

 head were purchased by packers under Federal inspection direct from 

 the farmer or at their concentration points. 



Now, the big appeal of the direct purchases or the sales at the 

 concentration points is that these points are located close to the farm. 

 The farmer can load just a few head, haul them a short distance and 

 sell them. While no figures are available, inquiries would indicate 

 that the average number of hogs sold per farmer at the concentration 

 points or in direct shipments would be less than 10 all the way through. 

 That would mean at least 3,000,000 more separate consignments that 

 must be checked, before checks could be mailed. And surely neither 

 you nor the Appropriations Committee would permit the mailing of 

 these checks without a complete check. 



That would make a minimum of 4,500,000 separate sales to check 

 before checks could be mailed. Wlien this was clone the Government 

 officials would just barely have started. 



On January 1, 1948, there were 55,038,000 head of hogs on farms. 

 The 1948 spring pig crop was estimated at 51,286,000 head. The 

 fall pig crop was estimated at 33,915,000 head. Adding the pig crop 

 to the supplv on farms at the start of the vear would give a total 

 supply for the year of 140,319,000 head. Of these as stated, 47,615,000 

 head were slaughtered under Federal mspection. At the end of the 

 year, or on December 31, 1948, there were 58,235,000 head still on 

 farms. So there was a disappearance during the year, other than 

 under Federal inspection, of 32,469,000 head. That other dis- 

 appearance was equal to 70 percent of the disappearance under 

 Federal mspection. 



What became of those 32,469,000 head? Some of them died. 

 Just how many, no one can possibly say. It is safe to surmise, 

 however, that if there is a subsidy paid on hogs, very few hogs of the 

 future would be found to have died natural deaths. The Govern- 

 ment pig reports and the estimate of the number of hogs on farms 

 show they were there originally. They are a potential on which the 

 subsidy would need to be paid. 



Many of the disappearances of 32,000,000 head were in sales, 

 1 head at a time, to the local butcher. But if a subsidy were paid, 

 each such sale would need to be verified before the subsidy check 

 could be maded. Many more of the sales were one head at a time to 

 renters of locker space. 



Here again, each sale would need to be verified. And under that 

 Government regulation could they force me, as a renter of locker 

 space, to turn over to them my records showing whether I had bought 

 only 1 hog or had bought 15 or 20 hogs during the year? If I gave 

 my buddy a slip showing that I had purchased 15 hogs from him for 

 use in collection of the subsidy, how could they possibly prove that he 

 did not raise that man}^ hogs to maturity, or that I did not buy them? 

 He might easily produce substantiated evidence that he had bred a 

 certain number of sows, and claim an unusual average of pigs saved 



