60 AGRICULTURE OF MAIXE. 



easily be made to yield all that is wanted to maintain the sows 

 and grow the pigs. The call of the market is for the rapidly 

 grown porker, and in its production there is greatest profit. 

 Such pigs, to dress 200 pounds, should go on the market at six 

 months old, and with two litters a year here is good business. 

 It will not be possible to make pork as cheaply from October to 

 April as during the summer months, but no man who has not 

 tested the value of roots, vegetables, clover and home-grown 

 grain can tell today what the difference would be. The first 

 lesson to be received is that pork making is extremely profitable 

 for New England farmers. When men come to believe this, 

 the next step which has to do with the growing of the forage, 

 root, grain and clover crops in largest quantity, will follow as a 

 natural sequence. 



In fencing an orchard, or pasture, whether with boards or 

 hog fence, I would run a strand of barbed wire close to tne 

 ground as a safeguard against the pigs rooting under. The 

 additional expense is slight compared with the safety insured. 

 There is no fixed style of architecture, either in pens or houses. 

 Every man must be a law unto himself. The one object is to 

 protect from storm and cold and confine within proper bounds. 

 He who commences on a simple scale will find it comparatively 

 easy to add to or improve as he finds success awaiting his efforts. 

 The essential is to start, and be sure to commence with good 

 stock. The question of breeds is not here raised, as that must 

 ever be a matter of individual fancy, but this much may be 

 indicated, that he. who thinks of realizing from his four-weeks- 

 old pigs must take account of the whims of his neighbors, espe- 

 cially as regards color. Type is of far greater importance, and 

 imless one intends growing the bacon hog with light quarters 

 and long, slabby sides, the breed should be chosen with special 

 reference to fullness of quarter and shoulder, roundness of body, 

 intelligence of face, strength of leg and shortness of nose. In 

 every case we want the drooping ear. not too large, as that tells 

 of a quiet disposition. In these days no man can afford to use 

 a grade male. If the' first cross seems to be correct there is 

 no certainty of its permanence. If grade sows are kept always 

 patronize a carefully selected, well bred, pure bred male, and 

 having made choice of any given breed cling to that year after 

 vear, thereby approaching fixedness in breeding. Well bred 



