Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1897-10-21
AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN.
Interesting Letters from Hancock
County Farmers

The last bulletin OF the state board of
agriculture is devoted principally to a
discussion Of swine raising, and contains
the following letters from Hancock
county farmers:
SOUTH DEER ISLE am afraid my
ideas rs to pigs may be heterodox but
was asked not to give other peoples and
mine may he p as to variety. In this sec
tion the family pig" is all that is raised
rs a rule, pig raising not being carried on
as a business. The rule is to buy pig in
April, feed according to circumstances
and different opinions till about the last
OF November, then kill. The pigs vary
from 200 to 375 pounds or therea bouts, ac-
cording to feed, care, etc. As an adjunct
to the dairy my own idea is to raise calf
in the winter, then about the time the
calf can eat solid food, hay, etc, buy the
pig, feeding chiefly with milk, though |
cannot, Ms some say they do, raise one
wholly on milk. | don't want fat pig
therefore | give some middlings and
shorts as help to the milk, but no corn
through the summer. This gives growth
and frame without too much fat. Then
when he weat her grows cool feed some
corn, meal, potatoes, etc, keeping the
pig growing and don't fatten at all. 1t
makes "plenty good meat" for me, and |
find 1t sells nicely when | want to sell.
Also 1t pays me best to salt all the fat, as
1t will sell for more than it will fresh,
and make sausage meat OF the lean; this
can be packed in stone jars solid, and
will keep all winter in cool place.
Smoke the hams and you have variety
enough. tried the experiment with my
potatoes this year, Of digging some before
the stalks died, when the tubers were
sound, some more just after the rust
struck, when l found scaded signs on
them, and later the rest of them. The
first rotted some, all the scalded ones
rotted, and the same happened to those
left till late. But the ones that were
sound at the second digging remained so
till the last, showing that early digging
does not save them. K. 5. WARREN.
NORTH HANCoCK-Am not familiar
enough with the pig industry to give an
opinion, but 1t would seem to ne II they
were properly handled they would he II
profitable adjunct to the dairy farm. |
shall take great interest in the answers of
those who have had more experience and
are better qualified to write on the sub
ject. w. S. ARCHER.
HASCocK-My ideas on the swine ques-
ton are those; Go slow about going into
the hog business on large scale here in
Maine, unless you know just what you
are about. There is not one farmer in
hundred so situated that he can make it
profitable. All conditions must he the
most favorable, for success; and even
tneD success IS not assured except the hus-
mess be in charge OF the right man. 1t is
all we'll enough to keep swine enough to
eat up the waste of the farm, or for those
who live near a large village or city " here
they can get swill at a tritiing cost, to ex
tend their pig pens to the proper limit
but to go beyond this limit, most espec-
tally this year, when nearly all farm crops
have received severe black eye, and get
a lot of pigs around YOU to eat you out OF
house and home,-why, just don't do ii.
II you do, you'll rue it."
f. W. WOOSTER.
ELLSWORTH have just finished cut
ting my ensilage corn; had more than my
siio full. Some stalks We're twelve feet
high and very large. Potatoes are a fail
ure in our county. The Red Dakotas are
the only kind that are not rotting very
badly. ! keep from four to twelve hogs,
Of all sizes, keeping them mostly in the
barn cellar. They pay nearly the cost OF
keeping, on the manure heap. We feed
on Stops from the house, some milk, beets,
turnips, and other crops az they come
from the field and garden. They relish a
feed of weeds ften. We use for trough
strong iron hooped tubs made of barrels.
Find them he most durable and conven-
lent. We have what some call the York
shire breed. They have a long frame
grow fast, take on fat easily, are con-
tented and quiet, eat what they get and
make no fuss il they don't get it, and are
profitable to kill at any time from six
months to two years old. | have large
SOW that will come in the tenth of Octo-
ber-have kept her for breeding. She
will weigh nearly 600 pounds when
fatted in December.
JAMES T. CUsHMAN.