74 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



pork barrel, in other words, one that will turn corn to the best 

 account ; and we find at the present time they have nearly come 

 together. There is not nearly so much difference in the animals 

 as there was years ago. They are almost all practically of the 

 same type. So I would say that it makes but little difference 

 what breed of hogs you raise. Raise the breed that you are in 

 love with, as you will take the best care of that breed, and it 

 will make you the most money. But I should raise an animal 

 of a good type. The brood sow should have length of body. 

 We all admire a short snouted hog, but six inches of body should 

 not be sacrificed for half an inch in the snout. Get a long, deep 

 and wide body, set on strong but short legs, and you will have 

 the ideal brood sow, provided she has been reared properly. I 

 would not take her, no matter how fine in appearance, if she had 

 been raised in a pen. We find that the brood sow, to be success- 

 ful, must be raised in a pasture largely. She must at all times 

 have had proper exercise and proper feed. A brood sow raised 

 in a pen and fed on corn is absolutely worthless. I would prefer 

 that the brood sow be a mature animal. We find that the mature 

 sow will give us healthier, stronger pigs, and those are the ones 

 that give us the most profit. 



The sire should be a full-blood animal, preferably a little more 

 compact in build than the dam, and then the cross gives us the 

 best kind of pig. Our success with pigs in the spring will 

 depend largely on the care and feed we have given the brood 

 sow during the winter season. What shall we feed her in order 

 to be the most successful in raising pigs? If we should feed 

 her corn largely and keep her shut in a pen, we might expect 

 her to produce a weak, poor litter of pigs, and quite likely she 

 would eat them up before they are twenty-four hours old. By 

 this method of feeding you have been giving her a one-sided 

 ration. You have first deprived her of sunlight and exercise, 

 and then you have been feeding a ration that is a large producer 

 of fat, but contains very little that will make bone, muscle or 

 nerve, and this muscle and bone making food is what we must 

 feed in order that the sow may be successful in rearing her litter. 

 With us this feed is clover hay, wheat bran and oats, with a little 

 corn in cold weather to keep up the animal heat. This, with 

 plenty of exercise and plenty of sunlight, is all that is necessary. 

 It may be interesting to know how we feed these feeds. The 



