SOUTHERN PORK PRODUCTION 



such as crimson, burr, red, white and Japan, and the 

 vetches, both the wild and the tame, provide legumes for 

 grazing the entire year. In addition, crops such as rape, 

 oats, rye, sweet potatoes, alfalfa, cowpeas, velvet beans, 

 chufas, cassava, artichokes, corn, peanuts, sorghum and 

 other valuable crops, make it possible to arrange for hog 

 pastures at all times. With no cheap carbohydrate con- 

 centrate, it is out of the question for the South to com- 

 pete with the Corn Belt in fattening hogs in feed lots. 

 The Corn Belt is rapidly coming to realize the advan- 

 tages of grazing crops, but the South can grow a greater 

 variety and have more grazing in winter than is possible 

 in the North and West. It has for a long time been 

 recognized that hogs cannot be successfully produced on 

 an extensive scale without pastures, and any large swine 

 industry in the South must of necessity be to a consider- 

 able extent a pasture proposition, as this has proven to 

 be the most practical and profitable. 



Market values of beef and pork. In making a study of 

 market prices of hogs and cattle in the South with corre- 

 sponding market prices in the North and West, we must 

 of necessity be impressed with the fact that at all seasons 

 of the year the prices paid for hogs compare well, with 

 occasional better prices in the South. In the case of 

 cattle, the prevailing prices are seldom equal to the 

 northern and western prices, and in most cases they are 

 only about three-fourths of the prices prevailing in the 

 North and West. It is true, of course, that southern hogs 

 compare better in class with the hogs produced in the 

 North and West than the classes of cattle compare. 

 Nevertheless, there is a difference which is sufficient to 

 have a considerable effect on pork production. 



