The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1893-11-25
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
HOGS AND THEIR RELATION
TO MORTGAGES.
Give This Important Animal Better
Care-How water Gets Into Tile
Keeping POTATOES Separate Poultry
Feelings and Uou,ehoii Help.
The Mortgage Litter.

| The Mortgage Litter.
| Swine have boon, and still arc. to
tho farmers OF tho greut corn belt OF
the Mississippi valley what. in the
past, sheep were to the farmers in
the hills of Pennsylvania. West
Virginia and Eastern Ohio-the
great mortgage liquidator. BY feed
ing their enormous corn crops to
swine they escape tho heavy expense
necessary to transfer their corn to
the market, and at tho same time
realized moro per bushcl for If when
marketed as pork than would have
been possible il sold as corn, writes
| i. ID. Beck in Colman's Rural World.
Hogs have not only enriched the
farmers but they have been chiefly
instrumental in building up Chicago,
| Cincinnati, Kansas City, ST. Louis
and many more of our prosperous
| Western cities. With such favor.
able showing | think they arc Justly
entitled to moro consideration and
better care than is usually bestowed
upon them by the general farmer. If,
with all the neglect and gross mis-
management that has been their
unfortunate lot in the past. and they
/ have accomplished so much. what
would have been the result had they
been given proper treatment? In
the first place too many poor.
scrubby. ill-bred hogs have been and
still are kept for breeders.
Every male pig not strictly pure
bred. and many that are, should be
emasculatcd before they arc two
months old; it is the only perfect
guarantee that we havo that they
will not double thcir own disgrace by
becoming the sircs Of pigs OF like
inferiority to themselves. A few
(not SO few, cither,) spaycd sows will
have the same effect. a sharp knife
properly handled is the chief agent
in tho Improvement of all classes OF
domestic animals 1t matters not
whether your breeding sows are pure
bred. cross-brcd, high-grade, low
grade, or scrubs, they should never
be mated with Il boar that is not
thoroughbred. We often sec high
grade boar that 10 all appearances is
equal to the puro-brcd one, but put
him to tho test and his low origin
will crop out in his pigs as surely
rs might follows day." No i'm
| provemcnt ever was or ever will be
effected by breeding from any but
purcbrcd males, and he who persists
in breeding to those miserable speci-
mems VIC too often see, that plainly
show their mongrcl origin, arc sim
| II, I'M al A
bred male can now be secured at a
nominal price; there arc thousands
raised every year that, while they
are not good enough for the purposes
of the professional breeder, are, or
would be if bred to tho common herds
Of the general farmer, of incalculablo
value in the improvement in their
herds of which they are capable.
Swine breed at an early age, and
may be bred twice each year, and by
using pure bred males and selecting
the best SOW pigs and mating them
to other pure-brcd males, in an in
credibly short time tho poorest herd
of scrubs may be SO improved that
for all practical purposes are nearly,
if not altogether, tho equal Of tho
best thoroughbrcds- Considering
the increased valuc Of the product OF
the herd, all this Improvement is
effected without cost.
Once, and many yet adhere to the
customs OF their youth, we were
taught that the brood SOW be poor,
mere skeleton, ut tho timo Of far
rowing, or she would neither farrow
large littcrs nor rear good pigs. We,
some OF us, know better than that
now and cndcavor to keep all tho
brood sows healthy and thrifty-a
very poor SOW is neither. The SOW
should not be fully fattcned that
would be almost as bad as tho old
plan, but sho should be fully half
fat Mover fear, if sho produces a
largo family, with tho most liberal
feeding sho'll be poor enough by the
time she wcans her pigs
Tastes change" and tho markets
change with them. We were once
justiiiablc in trying to market our
hogs at rs great weight as possible.
Then IL any large, overgrown hogs
were to DO had the medium sized pig
was shown small consideration, but
now hos ''on top and She former
favorite is far down In the scale OF
favoritism. In these days of small
profits doubt very much il we can
afford to feed our pigs until they are
much more than six months old. and
il properly cared for and fed every
day Of their short lives IL they are
we'll bred they cal. be made to weigh
250 pounds, even more at that age.
There are many, very many reasons
for getting rid of them as soon as
possible.