Marketing and Markets 363 



duced in the corn-belt find their way directly or indirectly 

 to the large slaughtering or packing centers. In the 

 cotton states, in New England, and the western range 

 states, on the other hand, the hogs are generally disposed 

 of locally to retail butchers, or slaughtered at home and 

 the meat cured or sold in the carcass fresh. For the 

 entire country, the Bureau of Census ^ gives the following 

 estimates for all hogs slaughtered in 1909 : 63.6 per cent 

 were killed in large slaughtering and meat packing estab- 

 lishments, 7.5 per cent in retail slaughter houses, and 

 28.9 per cent on the farms where grown. 



Shipping. 



Of the hogs shipped from the corn-belt, 23 per cent is 

 handled by the owners, while most of the remaining 

 number is shipped by local dealers or shippers. In some 

 districts, particularly in Minnesota, community live- 

 stock shipping associations are performing a useful 

 function in enabling the man with a few hogs to be inde- 

 pendent of the local dealer or shipper and in giving him 

 the advantages of a larger market at a minimum cost. 

 Comparatively few hogs are purchased in the country by 

 packer representatives or buyers. 



When practicable, it is advisable for the producer to 

 ship his own hogs. He will be more certain to receive 

 what his animals are worth on the market than he will 

 by selling to a shipper. The average margin received by 

 the local shipper or buyer for handling hogs in the principal 

 pork-producing states inthe corn-belt was 62 cents a hun- 

 dredweight. Another important advantage in the farmer 

 shipping his own hogs is the opportunity afforded for 

 studying market requirements and the methods employed 

 1 Bull, of the 13th Census, 1910. 



