INTRODUCTION. cxxxv 



within the region of country between the 35th and 45th degrees of latitude, and within the Mississippi 

 valley. Farmers within this region have found the hog to be the best animal into which to condense 

 for market a portion of the products of their farms ; the quickest to come to maturity, besides requiring 

 the least skill and labor to handle, hence best adapted particularly to the use of the pioneer, and is that 

 most universally relied upon for domestic consumption and profit. 



In quest of articles of cheap food, Europeans, gradually at first, more rapidly of late, have formed an 

 appreciation of provisions of American cure. With increasing demand, necessarily came enlarged compe 

 tition, both amongst producers and packers, resulting in marked improvements in breeds of hogs, in their 

 preparation for market, and in the reduction of the business of packing to a nearly perfect system, as 

 well as to fixed scientific principles. Within twenty years, especially within the last decade, the whole 

 packing trade has undergone improvements as marked as has been its growth. The relations of sup 

 ply and demand, though very irregular in a country so large and of such wonderful resources, have come 

 to be more nearly comprehended and adjusted, so that much less risk is now incurred by the packer 

 than in former years. Scarcely a particle of the animal is now wasted in the process of transformation 

 into articles of food or commercial use, and the collateral trade in bristles, lard-oil, stearine, grease, 

 skins, &c., has grown to be scarcely less important than the original one in food was twenty years ago. 



The number of hogs which are used in the regular commercial packing business of the country 

 can only, under the present system of statistics, be approximated. For the western States, through 

 the efforts of private enterprise inaugurated in Cincinnati, it has become a matter of quite close calcu 

 lation; but for the eastern States there are no reliable data on which to base a close computation. Of 

 marketable hogs, such as would average 200 pounds net, it may be fair to estimate that the number 

 packed in the entire country in 1859- 60, and entering into the commerce of the country, was 

 3,000,000 head, at an aggregate prime cost of 835,000,000. The cost of packing, transportation, &&quot;,., 

 would add to this a value of near 815,000,000, making a total of about 850,000,000 capital employed. 

 So many circumstances transpire to cause a variation in one season as compared with another, in the 

 prime cost of the hog and in the expense of packing, that fair averages are difficult to arrive at, and 

 those who engage in the business find that the most extensive experience furnishes but few data for 

 reliable precedents. In great part the business has to be prosecuted each season in the lights of intui 

 tion rather than of positive information as to what may be the best policy to pursue. These intuitions, 

 however, have given those engaged in the trade as much stability of position, perhaps, as merchants 

 engaged in any other line of commerce, and causes the very large capital invested in the business to 

 fluctuate now comparatively little. 



The greatly increased use of lard for manufacturing oil, has made for it a relatively higher price 

 than for other parts of the hog, in which the discovery of petroleum and its rapid adoption as a luminating 

 and lubricating material seems to have produced no essential change. This fact can only be accounted 

 for by the well-sustained demand for candles made from stearine, enabling manufacturers to keep lard- 

 oil in constant competition with all similar articles, and to find their profit in the stearine. The future 

 of the trade promises a growth rapid as the past. An increasing manufacturing population and con 

 stant large augmentation of laboring force from foreign emigration, the yearly increasing acceptability 

 of American packed provisions as articles of cheap food in foreign countries, all unite in assuring a 

 consumption that will grow in equal pace with the production, and maintain for the pork trade its 

 prominent position among the great commercial interests of the country. 



THE GEAIN TRADE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



The grain trade of the United States, viewed in all its features, is one of the chief marvels of 

 modern commercial history. To trace its rise and progress would be almost to complete a record of 

 the development of this entire continent, for it has been the leading agency in the opening up of seven- 

 eighths of our settled territory. First, in the march of civilization, came the pioneer husbandman, and 

 following close on his footsteps was the merchant; and after him were created in rapid succession our 

 ocean and lake fleets, our canals, our wonderful network of railroads, and, in fact, our whole commercial 

 system. 



