SECTION LVI. SWINE 



IT costs so little to make a start in improving the hogs 

 on any farm that scrubs, or razorbacks, ought soon to 

 disappear. Pure-bred hogs and grades mature at a much 

 earlier age than scrubs and grow to a much larger size. 



Hogs are healthier and much more profitable when they 

 live partly on pasturage. But even with the best pastures 

 of grass or clover, it pays to feed them some grain. In 

 the Southern states, hogs can be raised on very little corn 

 by growing artichokes, chufas, vetches, clovers, and alfalfa 

 for them to eat in cool weather. When the weather be- 

 comes warm, there should be ready for them fields of sor- 

 ghum, cowpeas, peanuts, and soy beans, besides pastures. 



It costs less to put a pound of flesh on a young hog 

 than on one more than a year old. It is generally more 

 profitable, therefore, to make a pig grow large enough to 

 be made into pork when ten to twelve months old than to 

 feed it longer. 



Hog cholera and swine plague destroy great numbers 

 of hogs every year. They are due to germs that have 

 been brought from other places where the diseases have oc- 

 curred. They are carried by means of running water, by 

 loose animals, by buzzards, and even by the shoes of men. 

 These diseases can generally be prevented by not allowing 

 the hogs to range outside of their pasture, and by keeping 

 out of the hog pasture and lots everything that has been 



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