222 HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 



across their shoulders. It's only by courtesy 

 that you can call such beasts "domestic ani- 

 mals." The only living creature that ever 

 made me climb a tree was an old white sow 

 I met once on a woods trail. Such hogs 

 haven't anything at all in common with our 

 huge, mild-tempered Happy Hollow Bob. 

 The difference is all in the breeding. Old Bob 

 gives a good account of every pound of bran 

 and middlings and corn that goes into his 

 trough ; but I've seen native hogs that wouldn't 

 show any effect at all of such feeding beyond 

 swelling up in the middle. 



Finding myself overstocked with hogs, with 

 a surplus that might not be handled profitably, 

 didn't decide me to get out of raising pigs. It 

 did set me to analyzing the business as closely 

 as possible in an effort to find its strength and 

 its weaknesses. I believe my conclusions right. 

 These conclusions apply pretty well to every 

 operation on a farm like ours. 



Much of the danger of disappointment and 

 loss in small farming lies in the margin of sur- 

 plus which the farmer is likely to find in his 

 hands from time to time, a surplus which can't 

 be handled to advantage on the farm and 

 which is too small to justify great care in mar- 



