Des Moines courier. ([Ottumwa] Iowa) 1848-1854, 1851-05-23
Selected from the Prairie Farmer.
THE MISMANAGER
WITH PORK AND WOOL.

WITH PORK AND WOOL.
Our mismahager is very much at home
among stock, since in no branch of bus
iness is there a finer field for his genius.
In this he runs very much to extremes,
aud has always the luck to get at the ex-
stremeties just at the wrong time. For
instance he watches his neighbors, and
notices that their stocks of swine are
getting large, and determines that he
will go ahead of them; and though the
Pork market has been on the decline for
some time he dips in, getting all the hogs
together he can find, without any respect
10 quality; and a hungrier and lanker
generation never made their debut since
Pharaoh's dream. True he has not half
corn enough to feed them, but then he
can fat them the cheaper! Hurry sour
ry, he goes TO hun, up corn. Every
body having as many hogs as he can
feed, corn is scarce aud dear. No mat
ter, il must be had, or the hogs must
s'arve. As TO having any thing else to
take lis place, such as potatoes, parsnips,
pumpkins, squashes, or any thing of The
sort, he has never thought of that. His
next neighbor fal,ed his hogs with very
little corn, having good orchard, the
fruit of which he has stored up, and
which with potatoes and pumpkins cook
ed, and mixed with a provender made
OF 6uckwheat, corn, and broom corn seed
ground together, has fatted his pork az
heavy as he need have it, and at very
cheap rate, too. This is too much trou-
bile for the mismanager. Corn fed in
4 the ear, thrown upon what was the
ground, before il got made into mortar,
Is the only way to fat hogs. Well he
does falten lhem-all butthe lat--he goes
..through the motions" They eat up
all his corn, and he can get no more, so
il becomes time to kill them. TO the
knife they go, and his next neighbor-
the one who fattcd his own hogs with
the mixture--cirhers out the profits for
him, and finds that while he gets two
dollars per hundred for his pork, i, has
cost him three and half. The result
rather disgusts the mismanager with hog
tattening, and he forthwith determines
to have nothing more to do with hogs;
they are an expensive animal, always
eating and never getting fat. Besides,
several of his neighbors have come to a
like conclusion together, and they all 60
out of it precisely the year before it ad-
vances fifty per cent in price. Never
mind, he is rid of the business.
The mismanager next takes to sheep.
To get flock together is work soon
done. Some he buys and some he gets
on the shares. He cannot afford of
course to be particular as to breed
Wool is WOOL -and if fine il will fetch
better price-if coarse the more of il
in fleece. The thing is as long as
broad. As to the number his farm can
carry, he has no definite idea. Nor is
it necessary, since there is a boundless
prairie range next him, and he can cut
wild hay to his hearts content. He
willnot need TO cultivate so much ground.
since prairie grass and hay are all that
sheep need, and that will suit him, for
he cannot bear being tied TO the plough.
His flock is somewhat miscellaneous,
consisting of big sheep and little, young
and cid, coarse and fine. black faced and
white. He wants a large flock; he is
not to bother himself with few sheep,
for he wants to make money in a way
to feel it. s. r- 49,
He eturns them o. course all together.
Is no, .he prairie wide enough! The