TYPES OF FARMING 59 



not pay to raise to sell. The difference between the price 

 that a farmer receives and what he would have to pay at 

 the meat market is a good profit. 



Since one family does not need as many pigs as one sow 

 will raise, only a portion of the farmers keep hogs. A 

 limited number of pigs may be raised to weaning age and 

 sold to neighbors at a good profit. Two litters are usually 

 raised per year. Or one litter is raised while the hog is 

 being grown for home use. Those who are in this business 

 usually find that they cannot afford to raise hogs to sell. 

 They must be disposed of as pigs. 



Occasionally, hogs are so high in price compared with 

 feed that grain can 1)3 used in the Eastern States to produce 

 pork at a profit, but when this is the case, the profit is 

 very much larger in Iowa. This results in an increased 

 production there and a decrease in price. When one is 

 on the danger line for the profitable production of any 

 article, he needs to be very careful about entering the 

 business when prices are temporarily high. 



47. Transportation as affecting beef-production. 

 Because the North Atlantic States have cheap pasture 

 land, many persons have thought that, for this reason, 

 these regions should produce beef cattle. But the pas- 

 tures can be used for only five to six months, and the value 

 of winter feed is so high that the industry is usually un- 

 profitable. It usually requires about 10 pounds of corn 

 and 10 pounds of hay or the equivalent in other feeds to 

 produce a pound of steer, good farmers do better. 1 If we 

 assume that a 1000-pound steer is half grown on pasture, 

 we would have the following comparison : 



1 The Standard Cattle Co. fed 51,393 steers in eleven years. For each 

 pound of gain these steers averaged 13.3 pounds of grain and 9.4 pounds 

 of hay. W. A. Henry, Feeds and Feeding, 7th edition, p. 399. 



