ECONOMICS OF THE LIVE STOCK INDUSTRY 



57 



TABLE I 



RECEIPTS OF CORN AND OATS AT THE PRIMARY MARKETS FOR THE 

 YEAR 1914 



Nearly all of the corn and oats shipped into Chicago arrives 

 over the railways extending west and southwest from Chicago, 

 whereas practically all these grains shipped from Chicago go over 

 eastern railways or by lake. This implies that the demand is in 

 Chicago and east of Chicago, hence the advantage of this cen- 

 tral Illinois area as one in which to grow corn and oats for the 

 market. 



So far as the writer has been able to ascertain, the freight 

 rate per hundred pounds of hogs in carload lots from the various 

 Iowa and Illinois railway stations to Chicago is about twice 

 that for corn in carload lots from the same stations. It appears, 

 also, that the rates for these commodities are, on the average, 

 about twice as high from the Iowa as from the Illinois stations. 

 On the assumption that the feeding of the corn to hogs and cattle 

 condenses the product to one-sixth of its original weight, there 

 would be a saving of two-thirds the freight by sending the con- 

 densed product. But the saving would be twice as great for 

 the Iowa farmers as for the Illinois farmers, and as the price of 

 corn rises, the point where it would be more profitable to ship 

 than to convert it into live stock products would be reached in 

 Illinois before it would be reached in Iowa. 



