| OCR Text |
Show -1 rT vt.Nkiii.Hn lTT . f njVy "V . Los Angclon, March 0. There seems to be quito a (jenenil opinion that pork is not us popular n meat food in Southern California as in some of tho colder climates aiul there is an inclination to offer this as a reason for limited ho production in th western states. However, such is not the case, by any means. Last year, meat packers and distributors in Los Angeles county slaughtered 697,000 hojrs, virtually all of which was converted into fresh meat trade. The product from at least half that number of hogs was shipped into southern California in the form of Jiams and bacon, smoked and in brine. This would make an equivalent equiva-lent of more than 1000,000 hogs, out of which comes something like 13C,-000,000 13C,-000,000 pounds of pork, figuring the average pork carcass to weigh 13G pounds. The population served by these packers numbers something less than 2,000,000, making a per capita pork consumption in Los Angeles county last year of around 68 pounds. This compares with the national per capita consumption of pork in 1928 of 73.9 pounds and the 1927 per capita capi-ta consumption of 6S.5 pounds. In California as a whole, it is estimated esti-mated that about 300,000,000 pounds of pork is consumed, which would make the per capita consumption in this state just slightly less than over the country as a whole. Of the 2,250,-000 2,250,-000 hogs needed to appease the pork appetite of Californians, it is safe to assume that less than 50 per cent are produced In Culifi . nia, Arizona Nevada, Utah and Ida! o, the states which now supply prnct 'cully the entire en-tire beef, lamb and nn tton requirements require-ments for California mi .keta. Indeed, California spends many millions of dollars annually for ho ;s which uro produced In Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Kan-sas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and as far east as Iowa and Missouri. It must be bourn in mind that California Cal-ifornia is strictly on an import basis no far us the big business is concerned. con-cerned. There are now GO per oent fewer hogs in tho state thnn in 1920 and in the meantime, th state's population pop-ulation has doubled. There is no danger of oversupply-ing oversupply-ing the California mark, t with home-produced home-produced hogs and we s'lould keep in mind the big export nm ket for pork and lard, which might be centered from Pacific Coast ports. Last year's exports of lard and pork, mostly in tho form of. hams and bacon, from the United States amounted to 801 million pounds, or the equivalent of 8,500,000 hogs at Chic i fro average weights. Of these 801 million pounds, 30 million pounds went to Alaska, Hawaii and Porto Rico, all reached at less transportation cost from Pacific Coast ports. Lard and pork also is popular in Mexico and the export demand from the Orient and South America could easily be enlarged enlarg-ed were a Pacific Coast supply available. avail-able. Over production of mnny of the stable western crops, such as decid- ious fruits, grapes, raisins, peaches, pea r.H, some nuts and a world of other products, is giving western agriculturists ag-riculturists Nomttliing to worry over. Yet this .same hind could well he made to profitably produce some crops which are greatly underproduced underproduc-ed namely, alfalfa, feeds and pork. It would certainly seem worth while for tho eduoationul and eoonumlc agencies In the western states to give very serious thought to making a complete survey of the hog and pork situation, including such items us cost of production, available feeds, present und future domestic and export ex-port markets, and practically, the type quality and weight of hog needed need-ed for Pacific Coast requirements. |
