Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1871-08-12
Stotk 4aisine.
RAISING PIGS FOR FRESH PORK.

to four months old, and sell them for fresh
pork. If of the right breed, and well fatted,
they are rs tender, juicy and delicious rs II
turkey. The most provoking thing about it
is, that the few customers who know what
choice eating such pig really is cannot get
it; and the few farmers who produce it can
not get half what it is worth. 1t is Il fact al
most unknown in the American markets.
Till it is known, those of lis who raise the ar
ticle in perfection must content ourselves
with such prices as we can get in hopes when
it becomes known we shall get what it is
actually worth. But even now, ut the pres
ent low price such pork brings. it will pay us
well rs any other branch of Elrmng-whch
it must be confessed, is not very much. Take
such pig as my young Essex sow, that mt II
little over four months old weighs 10 pounds.
She will certainly dress over eighty pounds.
Such pig would sell for mt least 81, and
ought to bring $40 or Sl2. A sow should
average eight pigs at litter twice year
say sixteen pigs, mt 81 each, or SIP. 4 good
SOW weighing say 400 pounds kept, us she
should be, in extra store condition, would
eat food equivalent to two tons ofclover hay
per year. But much of it Is food that she
picks up, slops from the house, &C.; and we
will estimate it ut S25, which is certainly lib
eral. If it is not. how much profit do those
farmers realize who keep pig two years to
make him dress 400 pounds, and then sell
him for seven cents per poundo
Now, what will it cost to feed the little
pigs? Till they are three weeks old, they will
t,ll In nd
proportion of it till they are from two months
to ten weeks old Taking our data from Dr.
Miles experiment, and bearing in mind that
we must, If possible, induce our pigs to eat
more food than his did, we will estimate that
the pigs the first month eat little or nothing
more than they get from the SOW, and the
second month they eat halfa pound each per
day, and the third month one and half
pound per day, and the fourth month three
pounds per day. the litter of eight pigs would
eat forty bushels, which we will estimate
worth $40.
The keep Of a per year is..................s25
The keep Of the litter Of pigs 1880
The pigs sell for. ........................ SIP
To pay the trouble of grinding aud cooking the
food, &C., We have. .........'.............'s4
And besides this, we have manure, and have
disposed of our corn at 81 per bushel.
The figures would have more pleasing AS
poet if we got fifteen cents II pound for the
pork. Instead of getting Sl7 for our trouble,
we should get Sl27; and that when the arti-
Gle becomes known, such pork will average
fifteen cents by the carcass have no sort OF
doubt. In London, large pork is quoted
at eleven cents per pound in gold, by the
carcass. And New York, Boston, Philadel-
phia, and other large American cities are
better markets for really choice meat and
butter than London. We can no more glut
the market with choice meat than we car
with choice fruit. The greater the supply o.
such i'm article of fresh pork rs have de-
scribed, the greater will be the demand; fol
the simple reason that it is intrinsically wortl
much more than we ask for it. Let us stud,
the interests of the consumers, us well us ON
own. They do not want bone or rind Il quar-
ter of IN inch thick, but sweet, tender, deli
cate, juicy meat; and it costs no more t,
produce it than rind and bristles. -.Josepj
Wtrris' Walks ami Talks.