The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1902-1905, 1904-11-25
SPRING PIGS.

The success or failure of most oc-
curenccs is determined long before
the arrival of the event. In the
raising of animals this must neces-
sarily be so. Provision for spring
pigs must be made months before
the pigs themselves demand atten-
ton, Not only must the existence
Of the pigs be made possible, but
their demands for food, shelter, and
accommodation must be arranged
for, long in advance. Now, there
fore, is the time for breeding and
planting for pigs which themselves
Will not require attention till March
or April.
The contempt with which the IA
zorback is commonly held in Flor
ida, sentiment not justified by
facts, and for which unfortunate
surroundings and improper treat
ment are responsible, has thrown
the entire hog industry into more or
less disrepute. We cannot get along
without hog products, but we are
too content TO let some Yankee in
Iowa have the care, and profit, of
providing our supply. That this is
wrong and uneconOmical hardly,
needs assertion. That the hog is one
of the products which, all conditions
indicate as one of our natural and
most profitable undeveloped resour-
ces, is equally true, though not so
generally accepted. He has COM
paratively slight natural association
with our truck and fruit industries,
but he is the natural adjunct of our
great farming business. He is the
natural and concentrated finished
product into which most of our
staple farm crops may be most profit
able converted. Our farm crops are
most profitable when marketed in
the form of hogs and Fog products.
| He is our best money crop"
This fact is even true of the infe-
rior animals, and irrational methods,
found on the majority of our farms.
1t is true i'll greatly increased degree
when better blood and improved
methods have had a chance to show
results.
These are the reasons why | wish
to make a few suggestions relative
to spring pigs.
The first reason for insisting Oh
spring pigs, lies in the fact that the
old practice of Strengthening only Is or
20 months animals is uneconomical
in the extreme, and has long since
been discarded by all progressive
farmers. The hog of the western
packing houses today is an animal
which will dress $50 pounds, at I OF
8 months old. March and April
pigs ready for slaughter the follow
ing November is the aim and prac-
tice of the western breeder. We are
altogether too slow to wake up to the
advantages and profits of this sys-
tenl With many advantages the
northern feeder never hopes for, We
too often follow the old hap-Fazzard
methods. Our pigs come when ma
ture or accident dictates. AS ii re-
suit one may find, on most Florida
farms, pigs of all sizes at nearly any
| time of the year. Some will be
ready for killing during the winter
| before they become year old
| Others, though si2eable shoats dur
| ing the killing season, are not
! thought to be large enough fol-
slaughter and so must be carried
over nearly wholly year, after they
| should have been marketed. This
long continued additional feeding,
| even with our cheap feeds, aud the
inevitable losses, make way with all
| the profits. Then we hear the COM
plant that we can buy meat cheap
| Ell than we can make it.
The first essential to success neceS-
States that we breed in November
and December for March and April
pigs. The next necessity is, that
| Frn,,, I'll. tioN1l th.Sn Nil mi,
be in the presence of an abundance
Of suitable food, SO accessible that
they may secure it without having
to work off any fat in providing
themselves.
The great secret in quick growing
and maturing pigs, animals that
shall be ripe for the harvest with the
advent Of the first cool weather they
ever see after they are weaned, is
making them grow constantly,
steadily with no Set-baCks, no fits
and starts. There is nothing 50 un.
economical in hog feeding as alter
nate stutting and starving. The feed
used for such stutfing is largely
wasted so that this practice is really
less profitable than the starvation
system, which, however unsatisfac-
tory the result, costs nothing for
feed. Push the pigs, make them go
constantly forward with no chance
for stand still.
The economical method for secur-
ing such results will be found in a
succession of green pasture crops,
which the pigs must harvest them
selves. This should even be fol-
lowed in the final finishing. Pin
ders, velvet beans and cassava,
rather than corn, should be the final
feeds.
Rye, oats, burr-clOver and rutta-
bagas should be the spring success
sion. Early peas, sugar corn and sor-
ghum may follow. Corn fodder, !
millet, late peas and late Second and
third CROP sorghum will fill in the
interval till the time for fattening
arrives and the finishing crops are |
ready.
The cost involved in this system 1
of feeding and making meat, con-
sists practically simply of the ex-
pense of making the crops. The /
product is in demand in every town |
in Florida at not less than s cents |
dressed, or $1,000 for a 100 pounds |
animal pastured on 5000 land in { /
If there is another crop |
which compares with this, OF any |
place but Florida which can produce /
it, have failed to find it,
QUESTIONS ANSWERED.
Q. Is beggar weed always soil |
improver? A. Yes. bat sometimes /
very much more so than at others. |
that the nodules found 1
on the roots of this and other leg
umes, are the seat of the nitrifying |
organism. whose work it Is to fix at
nitrogen ia the soil. many
T.ap,,Ia foil 70 saa ,,g.r1u,1,a.