The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-07-13

supply the market when we can grow
the meat at one-half what it costs the
Western farmer to produce 1t, ana
get the price the Western man secures
for his product with the packers pro-
fit and the freight added.
Some people seem think because
we have not a strictly corn oWl
section as yet that we are not in posi-
ton to grow pork probably. A great
er mistake was never made. Ihree-
fourths Of the feed of our hogs comes
from other than corn plants. What
an array OF pork producing plants we
have. There is blus-grass, Burmuda,
timothy, herds grass, crimson clover
rye, oats. vetch, white clover, cowpeas,
sofa beans. and corn.An these we may
have on any Of our Piedmont farms
if we will. On our place we have
abundance of all except the Burmuda
and vetch. and could have these if we
thought we needed them. We are
running seventy shoats on the little
place at this time at a cost for pur-
chased food (shipstuff) Of forty cents
per day. Thepigs way from twenty
five to sixty pounds each. The bal
ance of their food is picked on the
farm and the majority Of it is pro-
ducts that would otherwise be wasted
white clover, plantain, Japan clover,
etc. We let them right out into our
al ge clover fields and pastures. They
do no damage to the hay when they
have a large territory to run over,
and the feed they secure in this way
ht practically no cost keeps them
growing right along. Later, when
the field of coWpeas is beginning to
show pods they will bury themselves
in the vines and their purchased food
will be practically nothing. When
the cOrn gets in the wasting ear stage
we will start them off on a small feed
of snapped ears. These will be taken
from the ensilage field. Then when
the main crop is ready to husk, they
will be getting all the soft and short
corn they will use fed on a late pea
field. When the peas are all gone
an early SOWn field of crimson clover
and oats will be ready for them. But
cheering will AVE begun before this
time, the older hogs being killed as
the fresh meat trade calls for them.
Succuince will be continued for the
later killers, the small pigs and sows,
by the use of good, rich corn silage.
The last of the spring pigs will be
gone by February, then the early fall
pigs will help out until warm weather
arrives, when the fresh meat trade
will stop until fall. By October anoth-
err lot i'll be ready and we will try to
make sofa bean meal take the place
of h purchased shipstuff hereafter,
as we believ in growing all the feed
we use when possible to do SO. We
nav been growing hogs in the above
manner on our Piedmont farm for
eight years, producing from forty to
one hundred and fifty head per year,
and having lost only two hogs by di-
sease during that time, we conclude
that such a life suits the hog nature.
We spray the pigs evenly two weeks
with cattle dip, one to forty. with
some coal oil added to the mixture.
Calling the whole bunch into box
stalls. the spraying may be done in ten
minutes at very little expense. Our
pigs are fed their slop in large fiat
bottomed troughs behind a creep
where the sows cannot interfere with
them. The slop bein gdistributed
evenly in the wide troughs, the pigs
are obliged to take their feed slowly
and all have an equal show.
We constrate the boar pigs at about
three weeks of age. Have a good,
sharp knife, and a bucket of dip to
immerse the wounds in and no at
tention need be paid to the Sign"
whether it be in the heart, the toe,
or the end of the tail. We have con-
strated more than one thousand pigs
using the above disinfectant method,
have yet to lose the first one, and sell
dom have one to be off his feed for
an hour, SO We have lost faith in the
sign. The sign will be wrong
the pigs are kept in filthy yards or
pens, when fed on corn alone in a dry
lot, or when the operator uses a germ
infected knife, and the only sign we
cna be sure Of in the above cases is
that the hogs are being kept under
unsanitary, Improbable conditions,
and that the hog grower should change
his Methods or get out Of the hog
business.
A. L. FRENCH.
Rockingham. county.