The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-07-31

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There is hardly single farmer, with
whose system of farming | am familiar, but
feeds too much corn to his stock hogs.
Farmers generally complain because they
rarely if ever, get prices for their hogs at
killing time, from the buyers, and say that
it costs so much to fatten them, that hog
raising is Improbable. agree with that
class of farmers exactly on this point; for
no man can afford to feed corn to hog
from weaving time until it is ready for the
butcher, and sell it for current prices, no
matter what those prices are-in other
words, hog fed on corn all his life, from
weanling until fatted, leafs its head off"
twice over, and can never be sold for
slaughtering purposes, at profit. have
often been amused at farmers ideas on this
subject. They say: 81 had the corn,
plenty of it, raised it myself; bred and
reared the pig; therefore | can afford to
keep corn in the pen all the time, and sell
him at fair profit"
The folly of such reasoning is too trans
parently absurd and ridiculous to deserve
serious consideration. 1t certainly requires
no argument to refute its fallacy. 1t is
simply foolish, idle talk. Were it not bet
ter to sell the corn, and pigs too, before one
destroys the other, and thus save the whole,
rather than permit the hog to eat really
more corn than the price he would be sold
for at delivering time would buy? 1t
seems to me that this would be the better
and more sensible practice.
SWELL" you ask, show can the matter
be remedied?"
Easy enough, to be sure; and few
thrifty farmers follow the plan out exactly.
Feed more grass! These three words con-
tain and explain the entire theory of that
practice by which any one can make hog
Taising-barring the cholera-as profitable
as the raising of any other kind of stock, if
not more so, on account Of their ready sale
in any market, every year.
ip When | say feed more grass, | do not
mean to advise you to turn your sOws and
pigs, shotes and stock hogs upon short
crop of any kind of grass, or upon an old
field in which the noXious weeds and briers
luxuriate, or from which the cream of the
best and richest heritage has been cropped
by your bunch of mules, cattle or horses,
and then expect your hogs to flourish,
grow and fatten for the market, without
feeding corn at all. By no means /; for
hogs Kept on such pasture must have corn,
and that in ample quantities every day, il
you would realize anything from their
growth. The man who has the ground that
will bring corn also, as a general thing, has
ground that will produce clover or rye
perhaps both-which is far better. The
plan adopted by the best hog raiser evei
knew. and the most successful in every re-
spect, adopted and implicitly carried out OF
the following rules -.
-1 He was a small farmer, but his rule viii
apply equally well to large farmers. lie
generally sold about fifty head at slaught.
ering time, besides keeping about fifteen OF
twenty for his own use and to sell to labo
rers when cured. His plan was to always
have about thirty-fve acres each in clover
" and rye. and when the clover was in full
growth. he turned in his smaller hogs, ant
when it was in bloom all of them were pu
in. where they remained till the rye was
ripe enough for them, then he turned all o
them on that, to eat it down. In this way
both the clover and rye reseeded themselves
for wears in succession. Before the Glove
came, there was bluegrass pasture TO
them, on which no stock was permitted tt
roam. These hogs at the proper time wer
always given the gleanings of the wheat ant
oat field, and they never had an ear of corr
after the middle of April until the first t.
the tenth of October. Salt was Away
kept in their range, to which they had ac
cess at all times. By this simple and cheal
plan, he always had healthy and thrift.
swine, and he was enabled to put them o.
the market in the best possible condition
and. fatted them on small quantity
corn. he of course realized handsome pre-
fits. This course of treatment being COO
ing to the bowels and vital organs, keI
them free almost entirely from kldne
worms, blind staggers, etc. Water OF tn
purest kind, either from ponds or runnn
streams, they had constant access to-,
If our bluegrass farmers, who iced col
almost continually, and complain of the VI
profitableness of hog-raising, will adopt Il
plan herein set forth, they will have f;
better success and less grounds of con
plant Woodnian in farmers Home jon
mi