20 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



best American hams were selling at thirteen cents, and needed no ' 'faking." 

 All the American farmer needs to do is to keep up the quality of his product, 

 and the English market is assured. Thus it would seem that we do not need 

 any change of breeds to produce either highest quality of bacon, hams or 

 other pork products. 



BEST FEED FOR GOOD RESULTS. 



"If we wish to grow the bacon type and cater to that trade, we can do so 

 by selection and feeding, and to accomplish this we have only to select the 

 larger, more rangy sows for breeding. Then by a system of feeding the by- 

 products of the mills and the dairy as well as some of the by-products of the 

 packing houses in connection with good pasture, and less corn we can 

 pracically accomplish the result. When the packers will pay a premium 

 for bacon hogs, it may pay to cater to this trade, but in the Illinois corn belt 

 where corn is the cheapest feed, the thick meaty, early maturing type of 

 hogs will make the farmer the most money with the least expense, and yet 

 this very corn ration as fed by many farmers has done much to weaken the 

 constitution of the present day hog, and this coupled with the too common 

 method of each year selecting young sows from the herd that are immature 

 for breeders and selling the older ones is the prime cause of the small, fine 

 boned, chuflEy hogs seen on many farms, that each year shows a decrease in 

 size as well as a decrease in the number of pigs raised in the litter. While I 

 am an advocate of early maturity, I want a pig that while it will make 225 

 pounds at six months of age or from 250 to 275 pounds at eight months, I 

 want him of such conformation and length of body with the feeding quality 

 to grow him to 375 pounds and upward at the age of one year, and if a sow 

 and kept for a breeder in the herd, one that will weigh at maturity from 500 

 to 600 pounds, or if a male one that will weigh even more. We have now at 

 home on the farm a boar that weighed 787 pounds in his yearling form when 

 shown, and carried this weight with ease. His sire also weighed at the age 

 of sixteen months, 740 pounds. To get this weight we must have good 

 length of body, plenty of bone and good feeding qualities. The short chunky 

 type cannot make this weight. These large, early maturing types among all 

 of our improved breeds is the result of many years of careful selection, breed- 

 ing and feeding. " It is a well known fact that the first 100 pounds made in 

 growing a pig costs much less than the second 100 pounds, and that the cost 

 — or food of support — requires but about one fourth as much for the first 100 

 pounds as it does for the fourth 100 pounds. The risk is also much less in 

 growing a hog that can hs put upon the market at the age of six to eight 

 months, than in having to carry them along well over the winter to get this 

 or a heavier weight. Better raise two crops of pigs a year from the sows 

 and sell them at a lightweight than one crop carried onto a heavy weight " 



SECLECTING BROOD SOWS. 



This is a very important matter, and much of the success of the farmer 

 or breeder depends on this one thing. In selecting the sows that are to be 

 the mothers of your next year's crop of pigs, do not go out into the herd and 

 pick out the short, fat, plump little things that look so nice. In fact if it was 

 my own case, I would keep the sows that produced the last crop of pigs at least 



