430 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



reached an unusually high mark. During the year 1908 the 

 corn price curve held steadily and appreciably above the hog 

 price curve. On the assumption that a bushel of corn is required 

 to produce ten pounds of pork, this meant a loss on the corn as 

 well as on the time employed in feeding ; ten to one is the price 

 relation in the chart. The distance which the curve showing 

 hog prices rises above the curve showing corn prices shows the 

 return for labor in feeding. In 1908 this was a minus quantity. 

 This condition had not existed during the prior fifteen years. 

 Early in 1909 the curves were close together, but the corn price 

 was downward, while the hog price was unusually high. Early 

 in 1910 hog prices started down. 



So soon as the situation as to the price of corn and hogs and 

 the supply of hogs after 1907 is impressed upon the mind, it is 

 hard to keep from making the inference that because hogs were 

 fed at a loss in 1908 many farmers ceased to breed hogs in the 

 usual numbers. The facts indicate that whether it was lack of 

 breeding or some other cause the supply of hogs in the country 

 was short, for so high a price for so many months would certainly 

 stimulate shipments if marketable hogs were to be found. 



The next fact requiring explanation is the high price of corn 

 in 1908. A glance at the curves shows that during the greater 

 part of the year the hog price was quite normal, but the corn 

 price was abnormally high. 



The receipts of corn on the Chicago market in 1908 were 

 34,000,000 bushels below that of the previous year, and the 

 lowest they had been since 1895, with the exception of the years 

 1901 and 1902 when the receipts were low and the price high 

 owing to the short corn crop of 1901. But why this shortage 

 in receipts of corn on the Chicago market in 1908? 



The corn crop of 1907 was less than it had been for the two 

 preceding years, but with the exception of 1905 and 1906 the 

 crop of 1907 was the largest reported. The shortage of the corn 

 crop of 1907 under that of 1906 was only 11.5 per cent, but 

 the receipts of hogs at Chicago during the period when the 

 bulk of the hogs which had been fed 1907 corn were marketed, 

 indicate that out of this relatively small corn crop of 1907 an 



