Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1900-01-15
HOW MANY HOGS
That Depends Upon How Well the
General Farmer Likes Them.

~ -" -W-T"--E .. .h
That Depends Upon How Well the
~ General Farmer Likes Them.
GLOW many hogs should be kept
upon the farm?" is a question upon
which Mr.. J. NJ. Jamison expresses the
following ideas in The Prairie Farmer:
A farm from which the money crop is
principally hogs should improve year
after year. If the hogs thrive, rich
crops must be grown. Corn will do for
a series Of years II the old plan of
hosging down is followed and only the
meat is taken from the land, but con-
tinued cropping with corr cannot be
followed when the crop is taken Off
the land. If the fertility Of the land is
kept up, the must be returned,
and clover should be grown to keep the
land in good condition. AS the land i'm
proves the farmer feels he must in
crease his herd of swine, and directly
the question of limitation comes up,
for he knows that with increased num-
bers comes increased risk.
One farmer may be able to raise
more hogs than his neighbor because
he gives them better care and has bet
ter natural facilities, such as arrange
ment Of fields and convenience and
abundance Of good water. There is a
growing tendency to cut down the
amount Of fencing upon the farm, and
this is all right, but it adds to the linn
itations which surround hog raising, as
it makes it necessary to keep large
numbers together and different sizes
and ages in the same field. BY having
several fields the hogs may be shifted
around more, they can have cleaner
feeding grounds at all times, and more
care can be taken in asserting as to
size.
The farmer himself has much to do
with the number that can be handled.
If he takes no pleasure in caring for
swine, he will find that a very limited
number viii be sufficient for his farm.
swine on the farm and takes pleasure
in seeing them we'll fed, he will gener-
ally succeed with them. Then the on
ly question he need consider is how
many he can handle and keep them
healthy.
No farmer should have so many hogs
but that he can have new feeding
grounds to put them on if there is
danger from disease or so many that
they cannot be shifted to different
fields during the year. On NJ Sc acre
farm for nearly ten years we were
able to send to market in two lots
from 70 to so hogs each year. This
was the product of five sows having
two litters each per year.
But when we undertook to double the
number Of brood sows and nearly dou-
bic the product Of fatted animals we
had trouble. The first year we put on
the market over 80 with no loss worth
considering. The second year when
we wanted to put off 125 we got all
u available pasture land under the
tramp of the hogs, and when disease
came We had no opportunity to divide
them and put them on new feeding or
pasture land.
We shall Immediately go back to
about the same number that we had
the greatest success in handling. In
stead of five sows, we will keep six or
seven, as we have better shedding and
other arrangements than we had when
we kept five. We could doubtless car
~ the greater number if we had more
lots and spent more time feeding grain
products, but this would increase the
cost of the pork very much over that
made from clover and grass.