Marketing and Markete 383 



years ; and that years of high production tend to succeed 

 one another every four to five years. 



The chief cause of these yearly fluctuations is, no doubt, 

 the relation between the price of corn and that of hogs. 

 In other words, the chief stimulant to increased production 

 is to be found in the profits derived by the producer the 

 preceding year. Increased production tends to follow 

 the year when the price of hogs is high compared with the 

 price of corn. In 1908 the price of corn was high and the 

 price of hogs low. The effect on production is shown by a 

 reduction of a million and a half head in the receipts in 1909, 

 followed by another million in 1910. In 1910 hogs were 

 high and corn relatively cheap. The result was a greatly 

 increased production in 1911. According to the report 

 of the commission appointed by the Food Administration 

 to investigate the cost of producing hogs, 1 the average 

 ratio between the price of hogs a hundredweight and the 

 price of corn a bushel was 11.67 for the ten-year period 

 from 1907 to 1916 inclusive. 2 During this period, in other 

 words, 100 pounds of live hogs sold for 11.67 times as much 

 as a bushel of No. 2 corn on the Chicago market. The 

 recommendations of this committee were based on the 

 ascertained principle that when a ratio less than 11.67 

 exists between the price of hogs and that of the corn 

 which was fed into them, production is discouraged 

 and the supply reduced; and when a wider ratio than 

 11.67 exists, production is stimulated and the supply of 

 hogs increases. 



1 John M. Eward, Lawrence P. Funk, N. H. Gentry, W. A. 

 Williams, J. H. Skinner, Tait Butler, E. W. Burdie. 



2 This method of determining cost of production was sug- 

 gested by the previous studies of "Wallaces' Farmer" of Des 

 Moines, Iowa, 



