FEEDING FOR MARKET 53 



Pigs handled as above mentioned from birth, should be ready 

 to market at any time after seven or eight months of age, as suits 

 the owner, or could be carried along until late fall or early winter, 

 but should be marketed before cold weather comes on. It is not so 

 easy to make rapid gains in cold weather as during the early fall 

 months. Pigs handled in this manner should top the market when- 

 ever they are shipped. 



Of course they should be as well bred as possible from high- 

 grade sows and pure-bred sires to make the best gain, and should 

 also have other attentions such as either good bathing pools made of 

 cement, as described in this book, in which they can lie during the 

 hot hours of the day, or should often be run through the dipping 

 tank, or should be sprayed with some good disinfectant to which 

 crude oil has been added, thus keeping them free from vermin, the 

 skin in good condition, and assuring good health. 



The mixture of mineral matter mentioned in another place 

 should always be before them under cover where they can go and 

 eat when they desire. They should be kept free from worms. This 

 may be done by various methods as herein described. 



Porkmakmg Profitable. The feeding of hogs for market will 

 be found one of the most profitable departments of the farm, and 

 with as little trouble as anything could be for the amount of money 

 it will bring in, and quite a large number of hogs might be fed 

 for market on every farm even if it be a small one, and if one will 

 be sure to have his hogs inoculated with both the virus and serum, 

 known as the simultaneous treatment, before they are even exposed 

 to cholera, he need have no fears of losing them, provided the work 

 is properly done. They may become slightly sick from the treat- 

 ment at about 14 to 15 days after being treated, but it will soon 

 pass off and the death loss should be but little if any. The writer 

 knows one party that had 3,000 inoculated and lost but ten from the 

 treatment. In our own herd in 1913 we inoculated 219 and lost 

 but four which were quite young and probably got a little larger 

 dose of virus than they could carry. 



Value of Uniformity. If one thinks that all kinds of hogs will 

 sell for the same price on the market, just let him ship a car- 

 load of even weight and uniformly colored pigs to any market 

 and watch them sell in comparison to a load of mixed breeding, 

 colors and weights. He will then be fully convinced that it pays, 

 and pays well, to use a good pure-bred boar for producing pork 

 hogs. The writer once shipped a carload of short year-old hogs 

 to the Chicago market that averaged 409 pounds on the scales 

 there. The shrinkage was but 80 pounds on the whole load, and 

 they brought 25c per 100 pounds above the top of the market that 

 day. 



Why? Simply because they were as alike as a lot of beans, 

 and were so well finished that there was little shrink in them. 



It is a well known fact that quality counts in any market and 

 with any kind of stock or other produce of the farm. 



