The Progressive West Virginian. [volume] (Williamson, W. Va.) 1911-1913, 1912-05-30
tBy B. E. LARA3

(By B. E. LARA.)
The farmers of Denmark secure the
best prices for their fancy bacon for
the reason that they have established
email packing establishments where
they can haul their hogs and get their
pay for the hogs according to their
actual worth.
The man who has lot of thrifty
August and September pigs and gives
them rational care until grass comes
and has them ready for the market
by the middle of June will make bet
ter money for his feed than he will on
any bunch of pigs that he feeds during
the year.
On each and every farm there
should be some provision made for
dipping hogs. This not only proves to
be an easy and effectual way Of disin-
fecting animals which are brought
onto the farm but it also keeps them
free from lice.
Possibly there is no other farm AMI
NAL that can offer as poor an excuse
for his existence as the scrub hog.
He Is an Improbable animal any way
you take him.
AS an economical pork producer he
Is failure Even his ability to shift
for himself does not recommend him
to the people within the limit Of his
range as he has the reputation Of
preying upon neighboring corn fields
when food is scarce.
His build naturally adapts him to
his manner of living since he is long
legged, narrow in the chest, has a
long, narrow snout. This adapts him
to his manner Of living. With the
scrub hog it is root hog or die, "
hence the long snout His narrow
| body aids him in getting through
small fence cracks and IL he fails to
find a place large enough to go
through the fence he can soon dig I'M
der 1t with his long snout.
There is no standard of excellence
for the scrub hog since he may pos
2sess almost any form except beau
| tiful one; he may. be of any color,
| He has the reputation Of being able
to stand all kinds of rough treatment
and still survive.
He is regarded as being able to re-
sist disease better than the improved
| breeds of hogs. We very much doubt
whether this quality attributed to the
scrub hog is true since we have no
! ticed that hog cholera takes the scrub
1 as well as the well-bred hog.
| One thing Is sure-that the. scrub
! hog can consume more valuable feed
and give less in return than any other
animal that we know of.
| A farmer who owns a herd of scrub
| hogs seldom needs any other corn
crib than. his hogs.
He never gets rich selling pork and
to make him money to buy better
bred hogs he would never own better
ones.
| The scrub hog usually keeps his
owner so poor that he is not able to
| buy better stock. In fact, this Is the
excuse usually given for his existence.
Poor farming and scrub hogs are usu-
ally found associated together.
They are near and dear compan-
| ions. Both make rapid retreat be-
fore progressive spirit and there is
not better evidence of the general
progressiveness of people than the
absence Of the scrub hog from a com
munity
Too much stress canont be laid on
selecting breeding swine from sound.
healthy parents. Animals that are
not strong in constitution cannot with
stand disease as we'll as those which
are strong in that respect. In case
hogs are troubled with disease 1t is
almost impossible to give them medi-
cine or anything else that will prove
very helpful. About all we can do is
to feed a ration that can be easily di-
gested and keep them in clean quar-
tiers, thoroughly disinfect the pens and
let the disease run its course.
Whole milk Is one OF. the best
feeds for hogs that are suffering with
disease of any kind. It is an excel
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