SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART IV. 295 



to waste that he put in another 200, thus fattening 500 hogs at a cost 

 of ?100. He then drove them to Cincinnati and sold them for $2.50 to 

 $3.00 per cwt., making a nice profit. But at thb present time when 

 every foot of tillable land in the middle west is assuming an almost 

 fabulous value the farmer must follow intensive methods of agricul- 

 ture to their very limit, and in no way can he do so more profitably 

 than by raising a class of hogs that will tickle the appetites of a 

 dozen difterent people. The time for careless hog raising is gone never 

 to return and only the man who produces the best type of porkers is 

 the one who will be able to make his accounts balance on the right side. 



With these facts in view let us consider some of the points which 

 make a hog valuable on our present market. The great basis of 

 market hog classification is that of weight and the desirable weight varies 

 at difterent times of the year. Beginning about September first the 

 heavy hog comes more into evidence and commands a premium over 

 other grades. The heighth of the demand for fat-backs is reached in 

 December, January and February, for in those months the great 

 slaughter houses at every market center are packing thousands of hogs 

 every day. The time was when nearly all hogs were marketed as 

 heavy-weights, but now even in the winter months the demand for 

 extreme weights is not so great as formerly. This can be largely attri- 

 buted to an increasing consumption of fresh pork, and most of the fresh 

 meat cuts can only be obtained from the lighter grades of hogs. Begin- 

 ning about April first the light hog sells on a par with the larger 

 grades and a month or so later the light-weights command a premium 

 at every market. There is one system of hog management quite pre- 

 valent among farmers that seems to be in direct opposition to these • 

 market demands. Many hog raisers, and good ones at that, sell their 

 eight-months old pigs in the winter at a weight of 250 lbs. and then, 

 dispose of the old sows in the summer when they weigh around 400 

 lbs., thus bringing their light hogs on a heavy hog market and vice 

 versa. However, the loss in such a system is rapidly becoming less 

 as the demand for the extremely heavy hog grows smaller. A prime, 

 well-finished hog weighing about 250 lbs. will generally land near the top 

 and this may be said to be somewhere near the ideal market weight. 

 We don't mean that this weight of hogs will top the market every 

 day of the year, but prices on that class will average the best dur- 

 ing a whole year. 



I suppose every breeder wants to know what particular breed sells 

 the best, and tnat is one of the hardest questions for a hog dealer to 

 answer. Ferhaps the best answer is that no breed enjoys any marked 

 preference. In a recent investigation conducted in the cornbelt about 

 seventy-three percent of the feeders replied that they preferred the 

 roland China for the feed-lot, giving the small bone and quick-matur- 

 ing qualities of that breed as the reasons for their choice. Yet other 

 men claim that those very qualities have been obtained at the cost of 

 making the breed weak and non-prolific, and so this argument might 

 extend without end. However, let it be understood that the packers 



