SWINE RAISING 



By Prof. E. L. Quaife, Amherst Agricultural College, 



Amherst, Mass. 



Anyone, particularly one who has been brought up in the 

 West, cannot help being impressed by the scarcity of live stock in 

 the fields along the railroad right-of-way in New England. One 

 most feels like making an apology for speaking upon the subject, 

 especially upon hog raising. However, in spite of the fact that 

 New England is not as well adapted to stock raising as the great 

 middle Western states, live stock is the chief asset of the farms 

 and will always continue to be so, for every section to be success- 

 ful and permanent in its agriculture, must keep the different 

 classes of live stock. 



Of all the classes of live stock, there is no one class which is 

 neglected and despised to the extent that the hog is, and yet in 

 spite of the many criticisms and objections offered against the 

 pig, I believe that the hog if given good care and feed will return 

 as much, if not more, money upon the money invested than any 

 other animal the Connecticut farmer can keep. 



True, corn and hogs go together, giving the Middle West 

 her advantage, but she is raising the hogs on $100 - $300 an acre 

 land, making extensive use of such land for pasturage ; she mar- 

 kets cream and butter, feeds the skim milk to the swine and then 

 ships those hogs into Boston, a distance of 1,500 miles to supply 

 in many cases Eastern farmers with pork. The hog has rightly 

 earned the title of the "mortgage lifter" in the West. 



There should be a hog or hogs on every farm in New Eng- 

 land. There should be as many as the farm can carry, the 

 individual farmer will be the judge,— and I do believe that the man 

 who sticks to swine year after year, not so much overstocked but 

 what he can hold them and wait for better prices, and always has 

 a few to sell when prices are high will find the hog a profitable 

 animal. It is only the enthusiast who jumps into the business 

 when prices are high thinking there is a future in hogs, who 

 finds himself in when he ought to be out, and out when he ought 

 to be in. 



