307.. 



ft 



The present high prices given for hogs make them a profita- 

 ble stock, but the production of so much corn as they require 

 destroys the soil. Besides, too, they demand more labor to 

 fit them for market, and this labor is not often considered in 

 estimating the comparative value of the different kinds of 

 stock. 



Mr. Bollman said that vi^hen a farmer is about to determine 

 what kind of stock he will raise, he ought not look to present 

 prices alone, but should take into consideration the advan- 

 tages and disadvantages of his locality. Thus cattle raising 

 can most profitably be followed where there were wet marsh 

 prairie lands, as in Greene and other counties. Here there is 

 such abundant natural pasturage that one person may attend 

 to a herd of three or four hundred cattle. All that was ne- 

 cessary to do was to salt them occasionally, and keep them 

 from separating and strolling away. From a farm near these 

 meadows the hay should be prepared to keep them during 

 the winter. But where these natural advantages do not ex- 

 ist, and a farmer must enclose his lands and make pastures, 

 the common unimproved stock cannot be profitably raised by 

 keeping many cows. If, however, the farm, on account of 

 its water advantages and nearness to market, is good for 

 dairy purposes, then a number of cows suflicient to stock 

 the farm with their offspring may be very profitably kept. 

 If dairy operations cannot be profitably conducted, then 

 there remain but two courses to pursue. If cows are kept, 

 they must be of good breeds, otherwise the expense of keep- 

 ing the mothers will take away the profits of the offspring. 

 Or else the farmer must limit his operations almost entirely 

 to buying up yearlings at a low price, as is the course pursued 

 by the farmer alluded to by the Governor. 



[Here Mr. Nelson inquired how it was that yearlings could 

 be bought in this way.] 



My friend from Allen, continued Mr. B., lives in the line 

 of safe precedents, that is in that part of our State settled 

 by farmers from Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. But in 



