FACTORS AFFECTING THE PRICE OF HOGS 15 
UPWARD TREND IX DEMAND 
In . addition to the change in the value of money, the rapid growth 
in the population in this country, especially in the cities, has tended 
to increase the demand for hogs since 1900. During the decade 
from 1900 to 1910 the urban population was increasing at an average 
rate of more than 3.3 per cent per year; and during the following 
decade the increase continued at nearly the same rate. The total 
population in cities increased a total of more than 75 per cent during 
these 20 years. This increase in city population naturally increased 
the commercial demand for hog products. 
The per capita consumption of hog products, however, so far as 
it could be measured, remained about the same. During the pre- 
war period the price of hogs, even when expressed in dollars of con- 
stant purchasing power, showed an upward trend. (Fig. 14.) Since 
this upward trend in prices did not result in a decrease in per capita 
consumption, it is evident that forces were at work which made 
consumers willing to pay more for their products without decreasing 
the quantity taken. 
Prices of several other farm products were also showing an upward 
trend during this period, even when expressed in dollars of constant 
purchasing power. Several of these food products take somewhat 
the same place in the consumer's diet as do hog products. As the 
price of the other products rose, consumers turned more to pork 
products, which tended to raise the price of pork products along 
with other products. During the same period that the per capita 
consumption of pork was being maintained, the per capita consump- 
tion of beef was tending downward, beef consumption per capita 
in 1913 and 1914 being one-fifth below that in 1907 and 1908. With 
increasing costs of both meats, consumers apparently preferred to 
restrict somewhat their consumption of beef and to continue to use 
the same quantity of pork, even though that involved paying some- 
what more for the same quantity of pork per capita. 
During the war period the demand situation was increasingly 
dominated by European conditions through the tremendously in- 
creased export demand. Following the price decline of 1920 and 
1921, which terminated the highly speculative postwar expansion, 
prices of all farm products began gradually to work back into a 
realignment with the prices of other kinds of products. The prices 
received for hogs from 1921 to 1924 indicate that the demand for 
hogs (in terms of wholesale prices) is not so strong now as it was at 
the outbreak of the War. 6 
This decrease in demand for hogs may possibly be due in part to 
a somewhat smaller demand for all meats, as a result of the publicity 
efforts during the war to replace meats in the diet by other foods. 
There does seem to have been a very definite tendency toward a 
change in the dietary habits of American consumers during the last 
10 years. The per capita consumption of fluid milk has been in- 
creasing at a remarkable rate; vegetables, especially the leafier 
6 Part of this lower wholesale demand may be due to the fact that the portion of retail meat prices re- 
tained for slaughtering, conversion, transportation, and wholesale and retail distribution has been larger 
from 1921 through 1925 than it was before the war, as was clearly shown in Figure 4 on page 6. For defi- 
nite analysis of changes in consumer demand, studies would be required of the relation between quantities 
consumed and retail prices, with concurrent consideration of other factors bearing on consumers' ability 
or willingness to pay. The margin between retail meat prices and wholesale hog prices could also be 
studied to determine just where and how the changes in margin retained have occurred. 
