102 The Bulletin, 



If you go through the great hog sections of the West, or go through the stock 

 ytirds iu the West, you will find that the best hogs weigh only 200 to 300 

 pounds. When you find the heavier weights you get poorer prices. There 

 is no shrewder class of men than tho farmers. They know exactly where 

 the profitable animal stops iu weight, and from which they will get the best 

 returns. They are not breeding the big hog. 



When the- hog reaches eight or ten mouths, kill him then and start more 

 young pigs, and you will make money. At a test at the World's Fair in 

 Chicago it was determined that the Berkshire gave 90.S per cent of meat to 

 its live weight. The nearest competitor was S9.2 per cent, giving the Berk- 

 shire an advantage of over 2 pounds per 100. There are some butchers who 

 say that they can tell the difference between the Berkshire ham and other 

 hams, but 1 doubt it. In the Berkshire ham you get a good miugliug of fat 

 and lean, and they are better than the Smithfield hams. 



Uur average has been, with the herds running from 18 to 25 sows, from 

 8.5 to 9 pigs at a litter. We really prefer, in bri'cding for the pure-bred 

 market, not to have over G or 7, because we can make a much better pig if 

 there are not too many. We have had one exception: there is one sow on our 

 farm that has raised iu three consecutive litters 17, 14, and 15 pigs, which 

 have been raised and raised well. But that is an exception. 



The Berkshire will give you, I expect, as great returns for your money 

 cro.ssed on an ordinary hog as any known. Not because it requires less to 

 keep him, but because he has the faculty of applying what you give him iu 

 the best way, with the least waste. 



Our State is blessed iu a great many ways : one, especially — by having a 

 department where you can get serum for inoculation. There is really to-day 

 but 'Very little excuse for a man's losing his liogs by cholera. For three 

 years we have inoculated twice a year, sometimes three times a year. We 

 have not lost, out of au average of 150, more than 5 hogs iu a year. We 

 are feeding hotel swill to them twice a day, and I believe that the bulk of 

 that loss has come, from their getting bones or spoiled fish or something of 

 that kind. 1 might add that when you feed swill we have found by experi- 

 ence that the best way is to put it on the ground. We do not feed the liquid 

 swill, but we feed the solid swill thrown on the dirt, and the hogs are 

 allowed to root for themselves. In that way the loss from their getting bones 

 in tht'ir throats or from feixling fish bones is very much less. 



I must impress upon you the abs(plute necessity of keeping your hogpens 

 clean. A hog can live in almost any place, but you will not get the returns 

 unless he is kept in a good, clean place. 



One of the most important things, as you already know, is ])roviding plenty 

 of green pasture for your hogs. We use crimson clover, dwarf Essex rape 

 and rye. Last spring we sowed down some lots in oats, and as soon as the 

 oats began to turn a little we turned in the hogs and let them harvest them. 



I do not know exactly the cost of keeping our hogs, but last year we spent 

 $1,200 for mill feed and .$60 for the hotel feed. One man gives his entire 

 time to these hogs, goes for the swill, keeps them clean, etc.. and is given $1 a 

 day. All expenses would be covered by .$2,000. and the sales are over .$8,000. 

 This amount for the sales does not include the hogs used at the hotel, which 

 would bring at the market price about ,$000. I do not think there is any place 

 in America where hogs can be raised so cheaply as in North Carolina. 



Now. gentlemen, as I said in the start, it is not the Berkshire especially 

 that we are after. Every breed of hogs is believed in. We want to raise 

 our meat in North Carolina instead of sending about .$14,000,000 to the West 

 for meat that can be raised here for one-half that amount. Any man with 

 a few acres of ground can raise hogs. I don't advise every man to go into 

 the breeding of hogs and pay fancy prices. When you go to a breeder to 

 get hogs, see all he has. Do not select the one with the highest price, but 

 investigate the record. We have a certain line of breeders that we hold for a ' 

 certain iirice and do not sell for less; but we have other boars that will 

 produce just as good pigs, and they cost just about half as much money. If a 

 man cannot do it individually, let the community purchase a full-bred boar. 

 There is nothing that will \)i\y like it. 



