Statements of Experienced 

 Hog Raisers 





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HE following letters to the California 

 Promotion Committee will be read 

 with interest by those who wish 

 to know about hog-raising In Cali- 

 fornia, as they are from those who 

 have had experience in the indus- 

 try. Mr. Gordon, who is 80 years 

 of age, has been in the "hog busi- 

 ness" all his life. 



HUENEME, Ventura County, Cal. 

 Gentlemen: 



Your favor of recent date is at hand, ask- 

 ing to hear from me about hog raising. As I am 

 now over 80 years of age, it is with a good deal 

 of diffidence that I commit myself to writing. 



I was brought up in the backwoods on the 

 Ottawa, in Canada. I have been in the hog busi- 

 ness all my life, and in my young days in Canada 

 I was identified with that pursuit. Sixty or sev- 

 enty years ago in Canada hogs that would weigh 

 from 400 to 500 pounds would bring about 1 cent 

 a pound more than a 200-pound hog. Now it is 

 the reverse. 



In California the pigs now that will weigh 

 200 to 250 pounds at six to eight months 

 old will bring the highest market price. I think 

 there is a great deal more money for the farmers 

 to market them at that age than to keep them a 

 year and a half and average 250 to 300 pounds. 

 Now, what is needed to get the hog that makes the 

 most pork in the shortest time? I think the near- 

 est I know of is the Ohio Improved Chester, reg- 

 istered O. I. C. They are small-boned, low set, 

 good eaters and mature early (they are not the 

 Chester White). I send you the weight of two 

 that I weighed to-day: One was farrowed four 

 months and two days ago, 43 pounds; the other 

 farrowed one month and one day ago, 21 pounds. 

 I had my pigs all last summer on alfalfa and I 

 gave them some carrots for a change. I took them 

 in about four weeks before the State Fair and gave 

 them grain to harden them for the long journey 

 of over 500 miles; consequently they were in good 

 condition at the fair. 



There are very few of these Improved Chester 

 hogs in this State, although they are numerous 

 in the East. The most pronounced objection 

 against these hogs here is that a white hog will 

 not do well in the hot climate in some of the in- 

 terior valleys. It is said that the sun burns them, 

 and that when they are wallowing in the mire the 



