So AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



animal means an expensive animal. We have found at our 

 experimental stations and in our work on the farm that hogs 

 need something besides grain. They need a tonic and we give 

 them salt and wood ashes, all they will eat, from the time they 

 are born. Charcoal would be preferable, but it would be almost 

 impossible for us to get charcoal, so we feed ashes. We usually 

 haul a load into the barn, mix it thoroughly with salt, and throw 

 it out, arranging it so that they can help themselves. This keeps 

 their stomachs in good condition, and we are never troubled with 

 the hogs rooting when they are supplied with wood ashes, even 

 in our clover fields, but if the ashes is taken away for ten days 

 we find them rooting. If a hog roots it means that he wants 

 something which he is not getting. 



I would say that I think we receive one-third more in cash 

 by feeding corn to animals than we would receive to put it on 

 the open market. Besides this, we are retaining the fertility on 

 the farm. 



Oues. How do you fence the hogs? 



Ans. The fence question is an important question with us. 

 I have tried at least twenty different kinds of fence for hogs. 

 For the last eight or ten years I have been using a fence which 

 I have never seen improved. The manner of building it is just 

 as important as the material used. It is composed of barbed 

 wire and wire netting. First, I should set posts very solidly. I 

 would dig a hole four feet square and three feet deep, and fill 

 in around the post with rocks. The posts should be made of 

 cedar or oak, something that will last twenty-five years. If the 

 posts are not properly set, I do not care how well the fence may 

 be constructed, it will be a failure. When those are set solidly, 

 I draw a barbed wire around very tightly. No matter what kind 

 of a hog fence you construct, it is necessary to have one barbed 

 wire on the ground. That also serves as a guide to set the 

 remaining posts. These intermediate posts should be about a 

 rod apart. We let them freeze in and then every post is as solid 

 as a tree. In the spring, before the ground thaws, we stretch 

 the wire netting. It requires a great deal of tension, so we 

 stretch it from the posts while they are solid. We draw it up 

 as tightly as the tightener will allow, and then we have a fence 

 for a lifetime. Our fence has been up ten years and it is about 

 as tight as when it was first built. We draw a second wire, six 



