UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
DEPARTMENT BULLETIN No. 1300 
Washington, D. C. 
January, 1925 
CORN AND HOG CORRELATIONS 
By Sewall Wright, Animal Husbandman, Animal Husbandry Division, Bureau 
of Animal Industry 
CONTENTS 
Page 
Sources and methods of determining the data... 1 
The correlations 12 
The corn crop 13 
Acreage 22 
Yield 22 
Influence of remote causes on corn crop 23 
The December corn price 23 
Influence of corn on the hog situation. 24 
The hog variables - 28 
Summer weight and breeding 38 
Winter weight 40 
Price of hogs 40 
Summer slaughter 42 
Winter slaughter 43 
Fage 
The system of hog and corn variables as a whole. 44 
The method of path coefficients 45 
Central system of relations 46 
. Slaughter and live weight 51 
Pork production and total western pack... 52 
Total eastern pack 53 
Farm price of hogs, January 1 53 
The correlations 53 
Prediction formulas 54 
Summary. _ 59 
SOURCES AND METHODS OF DETERMINING THE DATA 
Corn occupies a dominating position in the agriculture of the 
United States. Each year the crop is larger than those of all other 
cereals combined. Of these enormous corn crops only about one- 
sixth is ordinarily marketed, and much of the marketed corn finds 
its way back to the farm as either corn or corn meal. It has been 
estimated by the Bureau of Agricultural Economics 1 that about 40 
per cent of the total crop is consumed by hogs, 20 per cent by horses 
and mules, 15 per cent by cattle, 4 per cent by poultry, 1 per cent by 
sheep, with an additional 5.5 per cent consumed by stock not on 
farms. The remaining 14.5 per cent includes 10 per cent for human 
food, 1.5 per cent exported, and 3 per cent for other uses. Corn 
is thus largely marketed by feeding to animals. 
The corn crop fluctuates greatly from year to year. The number of 
horses and cattle can not be increased rapidly, or profitably decreased, 
in keeping with these fluctuations. Hogs, on the other hand, mul- 
tiply with great rapidity and are ready for market when from 6 
months to a year old. Thus consumption by hogs is the most elastic 
important factor in the disposition of the varying corn crops. One 
would therefore expect to find close relations between pork production 
Yearbook, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1921, p. 164. 
2348— 25f 1 
