STOCK RAISING. 357 



run. In the fall he told me he had raised a hundred bushels of ears of corn per 

 acre, and that his neighbors told him when he planted it he could not raise thirty- 

 bushels per acre. Said he, when I rented the field I went to the swamp and 

 got three big loads of muck and put it where it would dry. I mixed with it 

 two loads of ashes and one load of poultry manure. As soon as I had planted 

 the held I put nearly a half pint of this fertilizer on each hill. When the 

 corn came up it looked as though it had something to feed on. That was 

 the only fertilizer used and I am sure it made me more than 500 bushels of 

 ears of corn. 



HOGS. 



In raising hogs there is better attention given to breeding than in poultry, 

 but the same rules apply. Be sure to keep the best. 



With nine farmers out of ten who keep hogs the profits of the corn crop lie 

 hehind the hog-pen. Valuable feed makes valuable manure, but that of the 

 hog-pen, next in value to that of the poultry-yard, is wasted for want of 

 absorbents and shelter. As a rule, the benefits to the farm derived from hog- 

 raising can be put in a pig's eye, but it need not be so. Place your sty 

 adjacent to your horse or cattle stable so that the manure from both can be 

 put in one pile, and be sure to mix with plenty of absorbents. A farmer near 

 Lansing is preparing to build a large hog-pen and store room for unthreshed 

 peas combined. He harvests his peas with a horse rake, without mowing,, 

 which leaves about ten per cent of the crop on the ground. After harvesting 

 he first turns his market hogs on to the field and as soon as they begin to 

 wander to find enough to eat he turns them off and turns on the pigs to clean 

 the field. The harvested peas are for winter feeding to store hogs. 



One advantage of the plan is that the straw furnishes plenty of bedding 

 and absorbent. 



CATTLE. 



The tendency of the average farmer in raising cattle is to run them out. 

 Most of us raise cattle for both beef and dairy products, and cattle merit- 

 orious as beef and dairy stock combined I believe to be most valuable for 

 the farmers of Eaton county. 



The cow that fattens fastest between the time she goes dry and the time she 

 gives milk again is the best producer of rich milk. Such a cow was not a 

 lean, raw-boned heifer, and none of her heifer calves should be slaughtered 

 until they have been proven to be not valuable as milkers. Such a cow if 

 allowed to go dry from two to three months will be quite likely to produce 

 calves that will bring a good price for veal, and often they are sold for that 

 purpose, while calves that do not take on fat readily and require feeding a 

 week or two longer to fit them for market are kept to consume the products 

 of the farm and make up the scalawag herd, which is never fit for market 

 without a special eifort. • 



When the butcher comes along and finds us with more cattle than we can 

 winter our scalawag steers are not quite up to the standard. A little stall 

 feeding is required to fit them for market. He will take the heifers and pay 

 nearly the price of milch cows for them. They are the choicest of the herd, 

 the only cattle in the herd that our sons take any pride in. Our boys do not 

 like very well to milk, but the anticipation of having superior cows to milk 

 had made them more contented. We have not shelter for the whole herd^ 



