Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1915-05-18
Profit In Producing Pigs.
YEAR IN AND YEAR OUT THEY MAKE
GOOD RETURN.

\ (Jean w nite, in New England homesteau)
II dogs would let sheep alone We
could find both pleasure and profit in
raising them, but having our whole
flock wiped out by sheep-killing dogs at
one swoop, and knowing that for the
kind of sheep we should wish to raise
Registered stock, while the towns pay
no more than the price of ordinary
sheep, we prefer something that we can
sleep nights aud not worry for fear Of
| finding them dead or dying in the morn
ing. If it were not for these things
believe sheep profitable. Year by year
find more profit in hogs.
We run a general farm, with dairy,
poultry and hogs. We raise some 20 or
more year to maturity. We have
never had any serious disaster with
them, and while this may be somewhat
due to luck, we of course believe 1t due
the care we give them. First and fore
most, we keep our own breeding stock.
These are strain of White Chester that
we have been improving by selection
for several years. The sows run IN
the barn cellar on the manure made by
the horses and cows through the winter
and are fed slops and scraps from the
house: also some whole corn thrown in
70 the manure to encourage them to root
il over. We give some bran or mid
dlings in their slop when scraps run
short, and some waste from the slaugh-
terhouse, say once week. They also
have feed of charcoal now and then
and pail Of ashes turned down to them.
Their food is salted, not always, but
from time TO time.
Bedding enough is at hand TO keep
their nest dry, and they are looked to
occasionally to see that there are no
lice. We do not want them fat, but in
good thrifty condition and meaty. A
poor sow has nothing with which to sus-
tain herself or her pigs. 1t has taken
all her food to keep her alive. We IKE
to have the pigs on hand as soon as the
first warm weather comes. March pigs
are ready for the market early IN the
fall, but here the weather is pretty cold
for them; April is better for this cli-
mate. Just before farrowing time We
take the sows up into the warm stable II
very cold; il not, on to the barn floors,
and build them pens with a bottom
board 9 inches from the floor around
the pen, so the pigs can run under; or II
she lies down with her back to the pen,
as she often does, they will be squeezed
under the board out of harms way In
stead Of against it and crushed. Our
sows are very tame and are always very
gentle with their pigs.
We never take them away as they
come, unless in very cold time, when |
we put them in basket of warm straw |
4 al 1ru Q
soon as the SOW begins TO stir around We
give her a warm slop of milk and warm
water with quart of bran it. We give
her plenty of light slop made in this way |
for a week, but no corn or corn meal.
We increase the bran and give roots |
which are cooling, and after the hrst
week increase her feed, giving some
corn, but relying more upon bran and
middlngs, as this is good growing feed. |
The pigs run with the mother until they |
are four weeks old, when they are re-
moved TO a pen by themselves and the
SOW bred again for a fall litter to arrive |
in September. The little pigs have milk |
from the dairy with mixed feed or flour. |
This is mixed up in barrel and stands |
from one feed TO another. They also
have few ears of corn thrown to them
and they get either butchers waste,
which we can buy at l-2 cent pound, or |
a small amount, two or three times a |
week, of beef scrap, also some charcoal
ashes and salt They have the run of
small pasture, but with this number we
make no attempt to pasture them for
feed. II We raised them by hundreds
we would SOW field with hog pasture
mixture purposely for them.
They run for time in the orchard,
and the SOW with her second litter runs
in the orchard for few weeks in the |
fall. When the pigs are three months
old We begin feeding corn meal, and
from then on they are fed meal and but |
termilk made into mush, all they will
clean up of it, For the fourth month |
they still have wheat middlipgs or some |
" heat product and they have some meat |
all along TO supply mineral for the bones |
80 they will keep up on their feet. We
market them at seven to eight months
old and they weigh from 2oO to 3CO
pounds live weight.
We have sold at I, l-2 and 10 cents
per pound dressed weight and we have
retailed a number which averaged 10 |
cents pOuuu. we get dUOuI S@o cdCu |
on an average for the pigs at market
time. 1t costs right around SIS to grow |
them. The buttermilk costs about so
cents week TO feed 10 pigs Of each lot.
The pigs would sell at four weeks old |
for s3 each. We reckon from that time |
and our profit figures about SO or 81 a
head on them. Besides this there is
around 500 worth of plant food from
the breeding stock and pigs figured at
experiment station estimates Of $50 per |
1000 pounds of hog per year. As We try |
to keep them always bedded we get the
greater amount of this to put back on
the land and our fields show its value. |
There is also profit on the young pigs
of at least 81 head il the difference be- |
tween the cost of keeping the SOW and
the SO head is taken. The few we
have retailed have come to S35 head
and over, and the extra cost is about two
days labor in preparing the meat and
delivering it. We shall try to develop
this line more fully, but thus far reli-
able labor for this work has not been
available to an extent that would allow
OF retailing all We raise. We could rely
on market, but we cannot supply it be-
cause we cannot do the extra work.
could give the exact figures for sew
aral lots nf pjps lint as prices and cOpdi-