Evening journal. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1907-1913, 1907-12-09
At What Weight to Sell Hogsl


With high priced corn and high
priced hogs what is the most profita-
bic weight at which to market them?
We have no advice to give in this
matter. but it is well to think about
the principles which govern them.
One of the best demonstrated facts
in feeding is that the larger the ami
NAL the greater amount of feed it
takes to run the machine and, there
fore, the less there is left to add to
the weight In the case of pigs the
food of support increases constantly
from the time ii is weaned, in fact,
from the time it is born. until 1t is
! finally marketed. Professor Henry
has thoroughly demonstrated this fact
by experiments running over series
of years Therefore. the larger the
pig, the less the number of pounds
OF gain it makes from a bushel Of
corn.
There is not a good market at the
packing houses for hogs weighing less
than 100 to IT'S pounds, and with high
priced corn and high priced hogs this
would seem to be the most profitable
weight at which to market pigs. How
ever, the other fellow may come to
tie same conclusion also, and as the
market can only take certain num-
Der of hogs of this weight, it is very
likely to drop and the shipper meet
with the usual experience of finding
the buyer wanting just the kind of
hogs that he don't have. If farmers
generally feed off their hogs at under
200 pounds there will be great de-
mand for heavier weights, from $50
TO $50 pounds, and hence there may
be wide spread in the price between
light weights and heavy weights If
so, it may pay the farmer to keep on
feeding his hogs, provided he has the
corn or can buy it at ten times as
much per bushel as he can get per
pound for his hogs at home.
This line of reasoning applies, Of
course, only to hogs that are kept for
the purpose of marketing corn. 1t
does not apply to hogs that have been
kept for scavenger purposes, for until
izing skim-milk, buttermilk, clover
blue grass and alfalfa pastures, or that
are following cattle. Hogs grown in
this way can be fed to much heavier
weights at profit, because the frames
have cost comparatively little in the
way of feed, and this feed would have
had little value except when fed to
hogs
1t is well always to keep in mind the
distinction between the hogs that are
kept for the purpose of finding a mar
ket for corn and hogs that are kept
for the purpose of consuming products
that would otherwise be wasted, The
former should furnish the lighter hogs
this year and he latter the fat-backs
and other heavy weights.
Blow Harda.
The farmer who spends good deal
of his time telling what he is going
to do does not usually stand very high
in the estimation Of his fellows;
neither does the farmer who rushes to
his local newspaper with the largest
ear of corn or his biggest pumpkin
in order to get notice. Neither do
farmers pyize very highly college pro-
fessors who spend more time in ex-
plotting through the newspaper what
they are going to do than they use in
actually doing it. 1t is necessary for
them to tell what they have actually
done, but often that is short story.
The readers of some agricultural
papers must be vastly amused when
they find each week whole page de-
voted to telling what an excellent pa
per it is. They seem to realize the
humor of it themselves, for when an
unusually poor paper is issued, the
next week you may expect them to
point out at great length it's exceeding
.srI.~ 10