Iron County register., 1889-01-03
PRODUCTION OF PORK.
Increased Risks Have Rendered Good
Mana cement Necessary.

| Increased Risks Have Rendered Good
| Management Necessary.
The time has come when every occu-
| patton on farm must be managed
with judgment and skill in order to
make it profitable. There is sharp
competition in every department of
! farming and stock-raising as there is in
every department of trade and manu-
featuring. Not many years ago there
was profit in producing pork almost
anywhere or in any way that the busi-
ness was conducted. Corn was abun-
dant and cheap, while live and dressed
| hogs brought at least a fair price.
! Less risk attended keeping hogs than
! any kind of farm animals, as there
were few instances of contagious dis
eases among them. AS such was the
case forehanded farmers would
sometimes keep hogs until they
were two Or three years old If the
price of pork was not what they
thought it should be. In the timbered
regions of the South hogs were allowed
to roam in the woods and to subsist on
mast till they had attained large size.
They were as hardy as wild beasts,
and some of them were almost as
fierce. The cost of raising them was
little more than nominal, as they had
no roof to cover them and they were
not kept in an inclosure.
Not many years ago a large number
| of persons made money by buying lean
hogs from farmers and others who h ad
no means of feeding them and fatten-
ing them on grain they parched. In
the South some man in nearly every
village made practice of buying lean
| hogs from blacks and poor whites. and
also buying fields of lodged grain and
corn, into which they turned the hogs.
| By taking this course they saved
! the expense of harvesting the
crops and they claimed that
but little of the grain was
wasted. Many people in the West made
large profits in buying store hogs and
! feeding them on corn and small grain
that was not up to the standard the
market required. Not few made
money by feeding merchantable corn
to such hogs. Some claimed that there
was a profit in raising pigs from the
, time they were weaned till they were
prepared to slaughter on corn bought
| at the usual market price. They found
that they could make ten pounds of
| pork from a bushel of corn. The cost
| of taking care of the hogs during the
| fattening periods was small and the
losses among them very few.
But pOrk-raising is no longer the
| profitable business it was few years
/ ago. The difference between the price
of corn and that of pork that it makes
| is not as large. During some seasons
i the corn is worth as much as the
pork that can be made from
| it. The difference in the cost
! of transporting the two articles
has become less. In the meantime
the risk in keeping hogs has greatly
increased. The swine plague, which
| is generally fatal in its results, has be-
come epidemic. In places where the
disease breaks out the soil appears to
disease amount to millions nearly
| every year. Many farmers have suf-
fered so heavily that they have given
up raising hogs for the market Pork
| production has ceased to be profit
able industry in many parts of the
! West where corn is the leading crop.
Few persons are willing to engage ex-
tensively in business that involves so
great a risk. For many years hogs
were regarded as the safest stock that
could be kept on the farm. Now there
is greater risk in keeping hogs than
horses. cattle, and sheep, rs tn ey
rarely suffer from contagious diseases.
Most farmers have learned by ex-
perience that it is not profitable to
winter hogs that are not kept for
breeding purposes. Perhaps the ma
jority think it is best to have
/ pigs dropped in March and to
dispose of them by the end
of the year. By giving them
good corn and feed they can be made
to weigh from two to three hundred
pounds in that time. Without expensive
/ buildings and a large amount of corn
and hot slops or cooked food hogs will
gain but little during the latter part of
the winter. Dairy farmers generally
find pigs profitable, as they consume
the sour and skinned milk for which
they have no other use. Experiments
show that hogs can be kept during the
summer on clover cheaper than on any
kind of food generally given them.
The crop needs no cultivation or
harvesting, and the only expenses at
tending keeping hogs in a clover
! pasture are the seed, the rent of land,
and a fence. The hogs will probably
destroy the sod, but they will leave the
ground in excellent condition for pro-
ducing crop of corn. An acre Of
clover will support five hogs during
four months. Glover is better feed
for pigs than corn. 1t will not pro-
uce much fat. but will supply mate
rial for making bone and MUSCLE
Chicago Times.
European Flower Farmers.
The flower farms of the country
around Nice yield as an average yearly
crop 1000 tons of orange flowers,
1000 tons of roses, $50 tons of violets,