304 THE FAT OF THE LAND 



but I do not think this prudent. When a pig is 

 250 days old, if he has been pushed, he has 

 reached his greatest profit-growth ; and he should 

 be sold, even though the market be low. If one 

 could be certain that within a reasonable time, 

 say thirty days, there would be a marked advance, 

 it might do to hold ; but no one can be sure of 

 this, and it doesn't usually pay to wait. Market 

 the product when at its best, is the rule at Four 

 Oaks. The young hog is undoubtedly at his best 

 from eight to nine months old. He has made 

 a maximum growth on minimum feed, and from 

 that time on he will eat more and give smaller 

 proportionate returns. There is danger, too, that 

 he will grow stale ; for he has been subjected to 

 a forcing system which contemplated a definite 

 time limit and which cannot extend much be- 

 yond that limit without risks. Force your swine 

 not longer than nine months and sell for what you 

 can get, and you will make more money in the 

 long run than by trying to catch a high market. 

 I sold in December something more than four 

 hundred cockerels, which brought $215. The 

 apples from the old trees were good that year, 

 but not so abundant as the year before, and they 

 brought $337, 12.25 per tree. The hens laid 

 few eggs in October and November, though they 

 resumed work in December ; but the pullets did 

 themselves proud. Sam said he gathered from 

 fourteen to twenty eggs a day from each pen of 

 forty, which is better than forty per cent. We 



