PORK EXPORTS THE BAROMETER OF 

 CORN BELT PROSPERITY 



FOR years we have exported from the United States more corn 

 in the form of pork than in the form of shelled corn or corn 

 meal. In recent years we have been exporting an average of about 

 40,000,000 bushels of corn in the form of corn and corn meal, 

 whereas we have been exporting the equivalent of about 130,000,- 

 000 bushels of corn in the form of pork products. And for the 

 year 1919 we exported the equivalent of about 350,000,000 bushels 

 of corn in the form of pork. 



There is an extraordinary sympathy between the corn and hog 

 industries. True it is that we feed almost as much corn to our 

 horses as we do to our hogs, but the corn which we feed to horses 

 is for the purpose of keeping the farm plant running. The corn fed 

 to horses does not bring in direct cash returns in the same way as 

 the cortn fed to hogs. Nearly one-third of all our corn is fed to 

 hogs, and from the standpoint of market strateg3 r , this third which 

 is fed to hogs counts more than the other two-thirds. The demand 

 for the other two-thirds by horses and cattle and by the grist mills 

 of the towns and cities is practically stationary from one year to 

 the next. It is the corn which is fed to hogs that varies so greatly 

 from one year to the next. 



For the first ten months of 1919, the value of the pork products 

 exported from the United States was $778,000,000, or about one- 

 eighth of the value of all the exports from the United States for 

 this period. The only other product of practically equal magni- 

 tude with pork products was cotton, with a total value of $775,- 

 000,000 for the first ten months of 1919. Wheat and wheat 

 flour, which most people think rank decidedly above the value of 

 pork products, totaled during this period $556,000,000. Corn 

 and corn meal exports during this period were worth an insignifi- 

 cant $15,000,000. Of course we are now exporting more pork 

 products than ever before in history, but even before the war the 

 corn belt expressed itself in international trade pre-eminently thru 

 its exports of pork products. The ham, bacon and lard of the 

 corn belt are comparable with the wheat of the northwest and the 

 cotton of the south. 



Before the war, we exported every year the equivalent of about 

 five or six million hogs. Last year we exported the equivalent of 

 thirteen or fourteen million hogs, nearly one-fifth of our total pro- 



