TENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PART IV 123 



After the pigs are about ten days old, we put about four or five sows 

 together with their pigs. This is done to malve room for more sows in the 

 single pens, and also to get the pigs where they will be obliged to take 

 more exercise in order to avoid the thumps. From here they -are al- 

 lowed to get acquainted with the larger worW and range out with their 

 mothers on pasture in fine weather. Here is where quite a feed bill can 

 be saved; if you have a good clover or alfalfa pasture sows will readily 

 cut down on the amount of slop required. After the pigs are three weeks 

 old they must be gotten onto feed as soon as possible. Nothing is better 

 for this than a little skimmed milk placed in a low trough behind a 

 creep in part of the pen; a little shelled corn should be placed there, 

 too. Don't let any feed stay in this small trough until it gets sour; shove 

 the trough out under the creep and let the mother clean it up. It will 

 not be long until the pigs will clean up considerable slop, mixed in with 

 their milk, and they will also be eating with their mothers. From this 

 on it will only be a matter of proper feeding. Don't overfeed. At about 

 six weeks, four or five of these pens are put together and placed in a 

 larger pasture of clover or alfalfa, with a part fenced off exclusively for 

 the pigs. Here we keep up the slop ration for the pigs, but diminish it 

 for the sows, to begin the drying olT process, which will take a couple of 

 weeks, when the sows may be turned into the feed lot by themselves or 

 with cattle. We try to keep the sows in as fleshy condition as possible 

 during all the time they are suckling their pigs, and they are pretty, 

 well on the road to Chicago by the time they are dry. The pigs are kept 

 in the pasture until they weigh all the way from seventy to one hundred 

 pounds. Not fat pigs, either. If we wanted fat pigs, we would not have 

 gone to all this trouble. They are pigs with a good frame, ready to fol- 

 low cattle and grow and fatten, a good many of them going to Chicago in 

 Cctober weighing two hundred to two hundred and a quarter. In the 

 pasture where the pigs are turned they usually have things their way. 

 They have young blue grass, white clover and rape, a creek of pure water, 

 which they can drink from or lie in at any time; later on they have 

 a chance to husk a field of corn, and, hogs as they are, I never knew 

 them to kick on the price yet. 



I know a generation or two of pigs can be raised more cheaply and 

 easily than my way of doing it, and many follow the plan of letting the 

 lows and pigs follow the cattle as soon as the pigs are able, but we got 

 no growth, as the pigs got too fat, and this danger has to be looked out 

 for when turning them into the corn field. Do not allow them to have 

 too much at a time and keep the old sows out of the field, as they know 

 how to break the corn down. 



DISCUSSION. 



Q. I would like to ask Mr. Gunn at what price he can afford 

 to put hogs raised that way on the market? 



]Mr. Gunn. I believe I can put them on at 3I/2 cents, figuring 

 oil meal at about $30 a ton and oats at 35 or forty cents a bushel ; 

 that is, giving them lots of grass. 



