VERMONT DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 25 



with less care and expense than can be accomplished in any 

 other way. In whatever light you view him, the hog- is the 

 most profitable adjunct to the dairy. Not only does he use 

 everv scrap of waste in the butter and cheese making - but if 

 given the opportunity will utilize all the other waste products 

 of the farm and garden. 



The hogs greatest sphere of usefulness upon the farm, how- 

 ever, is as a manufacturer of fertilizer. If given the proper 

 material — and he does not require you to buy nitrogen, phos- 

 hporic acid and potash in available form to turn out a fertil- 

 izer — muck, leaves, straw or litter of any kind, and he will 

 furnish gratis fertility that will discount anything that can 

 be bought in bags, taking into consideration the cost and last- 

 ing effects. Give him the opportunity and next fall you will not 

 find it necessary to call on one or two of your best cows to pay 

 for phosphate. One of the best farmers of my acquaintance 

 has his hog house so arranged that there is only about four 

 feet of floor in each pen and that is where the feeding trough 

 is placed; the balance of the pen he keeps filled with muck or 

 straw about two feet in depth, and that is drawn out twice a 

 year. 



Two hogs well kept ought to produce about three cords a 

 year of the very best fertilizer. It may be easier and does not 

 take much time to draw and apply the chemicals but it re- 

 quires quite an effort to meet phosphate bills with the cows 

 nearly dry as they usually are in the fall when most of the 

 commercial fertilizer is paid for. 



While the dairyman usually wants all that his milk, butter 

 or cheese will bring on the market and will spend time and 

 money to that end, the going price for his pork products seems 

 to be satisfactory. There are very few localities in New 

 England that produce pork enough for home consumption, if 

 such products were placed on the market in a marketable form. 

 From our shipping station at St. Albans, car loads of hogs are 

 shipped to Boston and New York at a price that barely pays 

 for the time taken to feed and care for them, and perhaps the 

 same trainmen that take live hogs away, bring on their return 

 trip car loads of salt pork, bacon, hams, sausage, lard, pickled 

 feet. In fact, I have no doubt but that hogs shipped out of 

 Franklin County in May or June have come back to it before 

 September, having paid freight charges both ways while four 

 or five different commission men have taken their toll. All of 

 this should have gone into the pocket of the dairyman who 

 first produced it. 



As two or more horses are usually kept to do the necessary 

 work on the farm I think one or more of them should be a good 

 brood mare. The dairvman should raise at least one colt each 



