| OCR Text |
Show GREAT ACHIEVEMENT OF STOCKMEN BY ADDING MUCH MEAT TO 1918 OUTPUT ' i h j ?bv r - 1 L ('.UH ... i J . t -- Not a Very Good Place for Hogs Clean Pens and Abundance of Exercise Will DJ a Great Deal Towards Protecting Hogs From Cholera. (Prepared by the United States Department Depart-ment of Agriculture.) American dressed-meat production, including lard, amounted in 1918 to 20,129,000,000 pounds a quantity never nev-er before approached in magnitude by the livestock industry of this or any other country. The corresponding figure fig-ure for 1917 was 10,317,300,000 pounds. Three-fourths of this enormous increase in-crease was in pork and one-fourth was in beef. The meat surplus in 1918 was so great that extra export demands made little impression on it, although 1918 export shipments of meat and lard nearly doubled the 1917 figures, rising from slightly less than one and three-fourths three-fourths billions pounds to slightly more than three billion pounds and these figures do not include shipments to American military forces abroad. The aggregate 1917 consumption of dressed meat and lard in the United Slates was approximately 14,n00,000,-000 14,n00,000,-000 pounds, but in 1918 It rose to 17,-2.r0,000,000 17,-2.r0,000,000 pounds. This means, after allowing for increase in population, an addition of 23 pounds for every man, woman and child in the country, despite de-spite the food-conservation campaign which in 1917 caused consumption to decline considerably. How Shortage Became Surplus. "While the people as a whole, through their abstinence averted the immediate crisis, it was the farmer who was the really big factor in the ultimate situation," says the bureau of animal industry, United States department de-partment of agriculture, which is authority au-thority for the foregoing statement. "The producer, of course, was expected expect-ed to do his part, but did it with such powerful effect that in a single year Uie meat shortage was turned into a pronounced surplus. Thus in 1918 there was not only meat enough to supply nii foreign demands compatible with the restricted shipping facilities but a greatly enlarged quantity was available avail-able for the home consumption. "To be sure, it cost the farmer more, )ery much more, to feed his animals md get them to market. Likewise all other steps from producer to consumer became more costly ; hence the high prices. But the unprecedented prosperity pros-perity of the people as a whole enabled en-abled them to afford the increased cost. In fact, laboring people probably prob-ably consumed more meat during the past year than in prewar times." Quantity Increases "Remarkable." "The total number of cattle slaughtered slaugh-tered in 1918 is estimated at 15,750,-400," 15,750,-400," says the bureau, "as against 13,-723,900 13,-723,900 in 1917. Their average weights were practically the same for both years, and the beef produced from them was 0,080,000,000 pounds in 1917 and 7,641,000,000 pounds in 1918. This was a remarkable achievement, as it hardly would have been credited that beef growers could increase their production pro-duction a billion pounds in one year. "The hog matures quickly, therefore a much more rapid increase would be lo ked for than was the result with cattle. Even s, the results for 1918 can he described only as stupendous. The hogs marketed in 1918 numbered 09.854,700, as against 57,483,800 in 1917. Furthermore, the average weight was 9i2 pounds more per hog in 191S. Thus, when the auimals are turned into pork and lard we have a total production pro-duction of 11,225,064,000 pounds in 1918, as against 8,478,289,000 pounds in 1917, an increase of 2,747,355,000 pounds, or 32.4 per cent, nearly one-third." one-third." Striking increases in exports are also shown by the bureau. Beef shipments ship-ments abroad in 1918 were 94 per cent more than in 1917, the chief 1918 items being 514,000,000 pounds of fresh beef and 141,000,000 pounds of canned beef. Exports of pork and lard in 1918 amounted to 2,2.(,287,030, which was 71.7 per cent more than the quantity sent abroad in 1917. The bureau shows that in the aggregate aggre-gate more meat by far is eaten in the United States than in any other country coun-try in the world, although some sparsely sparse-ly settled countries raising much meat have a larger per capita consumption. It also says that there Is room in the United States for a great expansion in the use of mutton and lamb. . |
