HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 219 



had to consider a number of things that 

 weren't to be foreseen by any uninspired 

 farmer. 



Our pigs got away from us. From a mod- 

 est beginning with a few good brood animals 

 our herd had increased to a hundred head of 

 sows and pigs. Our losses by death had been 

 next to nothing at all. On its face that's a 

 fine exhibit. Almost anybody could take a 

 stubby pencil and a scrap of paper and figure 

 himself rich at the end of a few years at that 

 rate of increase. Two broods a year, six pigs 

 to the brood why, that's 1,200 per cent, in- 

 crease, isn't it? And a money-lender gets rich 

 at eight or ten per cent! What's the matter 

 with farming? 



Nothing at all nothing but the chance of 

 losing several thousand per cent in taking care 

 of that increase and bringing it up to market- 

 able condition. A growing pig is the most de- 

 ceiving beast in the catalogue. His gain in 

 weight may cost you two cents a pound or 

 twenty or forty. That depends upon your 

 management. 



We had too many pigs, considering the con- 

 dition of our farm. If we had let it go on at 

 that rate, we'd have had five or six times as 



