Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-12-16
Teach Farmers
to Fight Disease,

Teach Farmers riculture is con-
to Fight Disease. fold csmnairn
first place, it is inspecting all of the
hog cholera serum manufa ctured in
this country. with a view to assuring
the farmers of a supply of good Sc
rum. In the second place. by lectures
and demonstrations in twenty states
where hogs are raised they are teach
ing the farmers how to combat the dis
ease. The third. and perhaps the most
important, branch of the campaign
consists in the operation of expert
mental stations in sixteen counties in
fifteen different states.
At each of these stations are several
experts. who respond promptly when
ever notified by farmer that cholera
has broken out among his hogs. a vet
Urinary is rushed to the spot in an au-
tomobile and the infected hogs are sci
entif1cally treated. AS an example of
how scientific control reduces the loss
from the disease, it is estimated that
in one of the counties where the work
Is being carried on $1,000 hogs were
raised the year before the work was
begun and. 10000 died of cholera. In
1913, after the government station had
been In operation about six months,
$4,000 hogs were raised and only 49,
900 lost. This year $4,000 hogs have
been raised and, so far, only about
$500 have died of cholera.
Although no plan has yet been an
nounced for the extension of this sys-
tenn of protection. it is authoritatively
known that the government EXPERTS
believe the solution of the hog cholera
question consists in the establishment
of serum stations in every county, at
least in hog-raising regions: and in
every township where they are espe-
cially abundant. These stations, of
course, could not be maintained by the
federal government. They should be CO.
operative enterprises on the part of the
farmers. American farmers have al
ready shown themselves very capable
in organization for mutual benefit, and
there seems little doubt but that such
organizations to control the hog chol-
era will follow the educational cam
paign now being conducted by the De-
partment of Agriculture.
There are excellent possibilities for
extending the hog-raising area in the
United States, and
Hog Raising thereby increasing the
in the South. meat eat supply. supply, A very !,
the swine are now produced in the corn
belt, but other sections are even better
adapted to hog raising. At one time
more hogs were produced in the south
than in any other section, and a special
effort is now being made by the De-
partment of Agriculture to increase the
number of hogs kept on farms in that
section, and also to improve the breed
The decrease ina the number of hogs in
tne' south has been caused largely by
the monopoly Of the packing industry
| in the great western cities, and the
consequent forcing out of business OF
many small establishments in the south
and elsewhere. This has deprived the
southern farmer of his market for
hogs, and has led him to give his at
tention to crops that can be more read
no reason why the south should not
raise at least enough meat for home
consumption, while there is a prospect
that the scarcity of meat will improve
the market for pork raised there.
The south is admirably adapted to
hog raising, because the long growing
season makes it possible to raise much
larger forage crops, and the mild
climate makes it unnecessary to build
! much shelter for the animals. The
scarcity of corn in that section, where
most of the land is given to cotton
! makes the fattening problem diff
cult, but experiment has shown that
if mixed ration is used, with COM
parat1Vely little corn, hogs may be
probably fattened in the south.
u X
The greatest need at present is to i'm
prove the breed of hogs in the south
and to induce the
Improved Breed farmers to take
Is Needed. anim.,s 1,na ., sou u4e
is the home of the razor-back. From
early youth he is turned out in the
woods to rustic for himself, with the
result that he has a figure like a
plank and never develops to decent
size. The Department of Agriculture
is trying to remedy this state of af-
fairs by organizing throughout the
south what are known as boys pie
clubs. Small prizes are offered for
i the best animals raised, and govern
ment experts are assigned to give di-
rections for the care and feeding OF
the animals. The boys have taken hold
| of the work with will, and have pro-
duced hogs which were veritable
| giants beside the stock which their
| fathers considered good enough.
! Another section which is considered
! to have future in the production OF
| pork is the Pacific northwest. The
tremendously rapid growth of popu-
| latioR in that section has caused the