Business & Finance: Father of Pig Waters

Desiring to raise farm income by reducing the pig population of the U. S. (TIME, Aug. 28), the Farm Administration announced a month ago that it would buy 4, 000,000 young pigs and 1,000,000 farrowing sows at a premium ($9.50 per 100 lb. for 25-pounders down to $6 on 100-pounders, and $4 a head flat on farrowing sows). Farmers expecting better hog prices next year cannily held back their farrowing sows, sold the Government only 200,000 up to last week. But so eager were farmers to be rid of young hogs that shipments poured in. With over 3,000,000 already received the Administration raised its quota last week to 5,992,000 piglets.

The stockyards were swamped. It is not worth butchering hogs that weigh less than 80 lb. Since the average weight of the hogs received was only 60 lb. not many of them could be made into pork for distribution to the unemployed. It had been planned to “tank” the smaller hogs: convert them into grease, byproducts and “tankage” (fertilizer). When the tanking equipment of the St. Louis stockyards was completely overwhelmed by piglets, the Farm Administration gave orders to salvage only grease (about 8% of pigs by weight). Last week the remainder of the piglets—which represented over half what the government has paid the farmers—was poured into the mighty Mississippi River, waste.