636 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



lot and small portable pen. These individual houses cost but little; 

 are comfortable, and give the sows and pigs room enough for plenty 

 of exercise, and the lots can be utilized in turn, to grow clover, rape 

 and other green feed. By having a separate place to fatten the hogs 

 in, you have ideal conditions — the exercise and green feed for devel- 

 oping bone, muscle and frame, and the less roomy pen where the hog 

 will eat, lay down and grow fat. 



The day of the slow-maturing hog that took two years to grow and 

 fatten, is passing. In his place is coming the early maturing hog, 

 that develops young and lays on fat at an early age ; one that will go 

 to the butcher at six to nine months, weighing 200 to 300 pounds, for 

 the Philadelphia market. An even smaller hog, weighing 140 to 175 

 pounds, tops the market, these can be turned off at five to six months. 

 To get the right kind of hog, if you do not want to breed pure breeds 

 (although I think this is advisable, as good, registered stock can be 

 secured at reasonable prices) we should use a boar from one of the 

 registered breeds, crossing him on the native or scrub sow. Select 

 a boar from the breed you consider comes the nearest to fulfilling 

 the requirements of a market hog, and stick to boars of that breed; 

 do not use a Berkshire this year, a Poland China next, and some 

 other breed next, or you will soon have the worst kind of scrubs. Do 

 not make the mistake of keeping young sows each year for breeders. 

 When you secure good ones, keep them as long as they will produce 

 good litters. Breeding constantly from immature animals will lower 

 the vitality, and lessen the feeding qualities. When you have secured 

 the proper type of hogs, if you give them good care, shade, clean sleep- 

 ing quarters, clean water in the summer, and clean, dry sleeping quar- 

 ters in the winter, you will find that there is none of our domestic 

 animals that will pay better for care and feed than the hog. Feed- 

 ing all corn or grain to hogs, is not the way to make pork raising 

 profitable. There is on nearly every farm some field or fields that are 

 practically useless; give them over to the hog, and see how soon he 

 will clean them up and fertilize them, so good crops can be grown. 

 How many utilize the garbage from the house, the waste from the 

 garden, orchard, etc. ? And yet here is a valuable asset in pig feeding. 

 This will keep the brood sows, and go quite a long way towards rais- 

 ing the litter. 



A good brood sow will raise two litters a year; the summer litter 

 can be grown largely on grass, rape, cabbage, and other green feed. 

 The winter litter on clover, alfalfa, and garbage. Supplement these 

 rations with a little corn-meal middlings, tankage, skim milk, or crack- 

 lings. These feeds v.-ill grow a large, strong frame, and as the pig 

 reaches the fattening age, increase the corn-meal, and he will quickly 

 be ready for market, and you have utilized many things that would 

 otherwise go to waste, and made some profit. 



Pennsylvania farmers need to watch Avith care the fertility of the 

 soil, as on this depends their success as farmers. There is no better 

 way to increase the fertility than feeding the crops to livestock. We 

 can grow as much corn and other grains, per acre, as any state in the 

 Union, and if every farmer will feed his crops to hogs and other live 

 stock, buying as needed, other feeds, he will find a high-priced market 

 for his grains, and each year increase tlie fertility of tlie soil, and so 

 grow bigger crops. I know that in the West they give over whole 



