SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART IV. 299 



can you can get them into the same form and about the degree 

 of flesh so far as amount is concerned but will not make them 

 bacon hogs of a high standard of excellence. The difference 

 is this, that the bacon hog is a smooth, hard, fine boned hog; 

 the other may be thin but his flesh will be soft and flabby. It 

 is the result of both feeding and breeding, but breeding is a 

 greater factor in fixing the type of a hog than feeding. I 

 agree fully with what has been said in regard to the character 

 of the hogs of this state always being of the fat type. It is 

 necessarily so because our corn crop is the feed which we have 

 in greatest abundance and we are producing more largely the 

 kind of pork that can be produced easily with corn. However, 

 there is a great demand for bacon hogs. There is a firm at 

 Ottumwa which imported several hundred breeding hogs of 

 the bacon type and markets are paying them a premium for 

 that kind of hogs. They make a specialty of it. About a 

 year ago I was talking with the manager of the firm and he told 

 me that they were feeding hogs two or three weeks before 

 killing on shorts and buttermilk. How much they gain in 

 two weeks feeding I do not know but that firm is putting out 

 a very high grade product and our local meat merchants have 

 said they can take hams bought of this firm and sell them for 

 more money than hams that come from Chicago. If these men 

 get a premium for their products the farmers can get it for 

 the same class of goods." 



Mr. H. F. Hoffman, of Washta, Iowa, read a paper on 

 "Health on the Hog Farm" wh\ch was not very interesting 

 but nistructive. 



HEALTH ON THE HOG FARM. 



H. F. HOFFMAN, WASHTA, IOWA. 



This very important subject is perhaps receiving more attention 

 at this time than ever before, and justly so. 



Our first impression upon being asked to write a paper along tnis 

 line was that it was meant to be confined to the conditions that were 

 to prevail on the farm after the birth of the pig. But to really have 

 health on the hog farm it is necessary to get busy long before this 

 time. As many pigs are born, and we might almost say the majority. 



