388 Types and Market Classes of Live Stock 



Rhode Island and North Dakota sheep and hogs vary an equal number 

 of points from the rank in corn. In each of the remaining 42 states, 

 hogs rank closer to corn than do sheep. Notice how closely corn and 

 hogs are associated in the first eight states. There seems to be no 

 correlation between sheep and corn. 



Changes in size and weight of market hogs. — By 1850 American 

 swine growers had developed a very large, lengthy, broad backed, deep 

 middled, and rather coarse type of hog that grew to large size and was 

 marketed at very heavy weights. Early pork packers paid a premium 

 for very heavy weights. Weights in market hogs ranging from 350 to 

 500 pounds were fairly common, and some weighed over 700 pounds. 



Writing in 1866, Charles Cist, of Cincinnati, stated : ' "The differ- 

 ent classes of cured pork, packed in barrels, are made of the different 

 sizes and conditions of hogs, the finest and fattest making clear and 

 mess pork, while the residue is put up into prime pork and bacon. 

 The inspection laws require that clear pork shall be put up of the 

 sides with the ribs out. It takes the largest class of hogs to receive 

 this brand." 



In 1864 H. D. Emery, of Chicago, stated ^ that "the price for dressed 

 hogs divides at 200 pounds, the lowest price being for light ones." He 

 also states, "The earliest purchases made for packing in 1832 to 1834 

 varied from $2 to $3 per hundred net. To show the weight of hogs 

 in early days, contracts were sometimes made between packers and 

 drovers for a lot of hogs, for which a given price was to be paid, the 

 hogs to average 150 pounds; for all that they averaged over that 

 1 cent per pound was to be added, and all that they fell short 1 cent 

 per pound was to be deducted. This was an incentive to produce 

 heavy hogs, the contracts being made early in the season." 



In 1842 a writer ^ described the hogs of the Miami valley near 

 Cincinnati (foundation stock of the Poland-China breed) as follows: 

 "But the stock to which the people here have paid the greatest atten- 

 tion, and which is their largest and most staple production, is swine. 

 The immense crops of corn enable them to keep vast herds of these 

 animals, and one will find from 50 to 300 head of the various sizes, 

 from pigs up to immense fatting porkers, on nearly every farm that 

 he may happen to pass." The same writer reports that he had re- 

 peatedly seen hogs in that region that would weigh from 800 to 1,000 

 pounds. 



Clark Petit's History of Jersey Reds (ancestors of the modern 

 Duroc-Jersey) states that among New Jersey breeders there "had long 



lU. S. Dept. Agr. An. Rpt., 1866, p. 386. 



2U. S. Dept. Agr. An. Rpt., 1863, pp. 210, 211. 



'American Agriculturist, Nov., 1842, p. 234. 



