The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-03-07
SWINE HUSBANDRY.
The Problem in its Various Bear
ings Treated From a FARM
er's StandpOint.

A paper read before the Farmers
Institute OF Linn County, Kansas, at
Pieasanton, February 9Th, 1886, by
C1ptam o. E. Morse
Mr.. President and Genlemen:-The
subject Of this paper is not ona of my
own choice. The business of swine
breeding is one for which have no
special fancy or enthusiasm. It may
then be asked why do I breed and
hannle hogs2 And why am I found
year after year exhibiting the results OF
my breeding and feeding at our different
fairs? L can besL answer these ques-
tons by repeating an old and true-say-
ing that "the hog is the poor mans best
friend" Having commenced farming
on the bottom round of the ladder, on
a rented farm, and believing that what
was worth doing at all was worth doing
well, 1 at once devoted myself TO the
Improvement of my hogs; that i'm
piovement has been going on steadily
from that day to the present. There is
another quite a good reason why
raise hogs. Mixed farming and stock
raising cannot be followed with the best
results without the aid OF swine: no
other domestic animal can take its place
as an animated machine for converting
INTO marketable commodity much
that would otherwise go 10 waste.
s9all then present my experiences.
| observations ant conclusions upon this
| O 9 n
! ance Of the industry; second, the pur
pose; third, description; fourth, breed
ing; nth, care; sixth, feeding seventh
disease.
Advance sheets recently issued by
the statisiicisn Of the Agricultural
Department at Washington indicate
that in recent years the entire number
OF hogs i'll this country OH summer
range is from 4S,C00 Geo to As ,0e0, 60, or
four fiftLs OF lie entire population or
eighty swine to every one hundred peO-
! pie. The number slaughtered annually
is 5000 eco, a deer ase of LOCO coo 10
2,O00,C0j from four years ago. Expor-
| tation has decreased about 90, COG, O; o in
the same time, the result of restrictions
by German and French governments
| placed upon the importations into those
| countries OF American pork products.
In Europe the proportion OF swine to
| population as compared with America
Is less than one 10 five or fifleC, 10 each
one hundred of population.
From 1870 to 1880 the expor alton Of
hogs and hog prohuctS was 50 stimulat-
! ed By reason OF failures OF harvests in
Europe. and our own abundant corn
crops, that in five years of that time
| the expectation exceeded that OF the
|
age annual expectation for the last
twenty -fve years of hogs and pork pro.
ducts has been 100000 Geo pounds.
Taking 30 pounds as the average cured
product OF hoF, the average annual
requirement for The export trade would
BE- 2,65O,0C0 h gs, and should the value
OF eXDortatlons be, placed at an average
OF SIX cents per pound, the yearly ex
portduCn wOUld amount to S3l $50 900,
or an aggregate for the TWENTY-FIVE
years OF $I95 CO.. 00o. Supposing the
average individual consumption annu-
ally Of American PORK products to be
fifty pounds. then zach year for twenty
five years 1880 Coz Europeans have
par taken of the American hog, and
thus the Amer;caniZation began that
ultimately adds them to the toillng
teemipg millions OF pOrS-proGucecs of
this great west.
The annual home consumption of
pork products during the same period
has averaged 3 900 0O0 COO pounds. The
weight Of hogs Slaughtered by farmers
being less than at the packing houses.
175 pounds would be near the average
for home consumption. 1t would take
annually 17,142, S57 hogs to meet this
demand, and !plac;ng the value per
pound the same as for that exported,
the home consumption Of pork products
would represent a value Of $500 900
annually, or for the twenty-five wears
the entire National debt al the close of
the war.
Thus we see that for twenty-five years
the average annual pork product of the
United States has been $3.50, 800 GOO
pounds, of which fifteen per cent. has
been exported, and for its production
has required the yearly slaughtering OF
in round numbers-20. 900 900 hogs,
worth $2ll 500 0O0, and that in twenty
five years 500 ,000 COO hogs have been
producedsfor slaughter at valuation
OF over five billion Of dollars. The pre-
sent home consumption is 4, 900 900 900
pounds. or seventy pounds to each in
habitant. We NAV assume then, that
for twenty-five wears the American hog
has been furnishing a large portion of
the meat ration for 10000 900 10 5000
600 human beings.
An examination of stock and grain
marke. stati c. show conclvsively that
the value of hogs marketed exceed in
value the marketing of all other farm
stock and is less by only ve6y small
per cent. than Leva!ue OF all the grains
marketed.
Nearly all other domestic animals are
bred, fed and kept for diversity OF
purposes. The hog seems to have but
one mission in life, which he consuma-
mates in death, that OF converting the
bulky food he eats into condensed tran
sportable and preservable human food,
and no other of the entire animal kicg-
dom meets ell these requirements so
as the pig.
In these latter days humanity has be-
come more exaciing in this as in every
thing else. We not only require that be
convert what be eats into food for US,
but we require that it be done i'll the
least possible time That it be OF best
quality and greatest quantity Tor food
consumed.
For this purpose and by these exac.
tons has been dev eIoped the type OF
hog 7 shall nov attempt to describe.