POLAND CHINA HOGS. 29 



care, and take the place of those sold, while those that are not 

 of that class are sold to the butcher. The amount of butter 

 sold each year, besides the family use, is about 500 pounds. 



POLAND CHINA HOGS. 



There are usually raised on the place from 100 to 125 

 head of hogs, of the Poland China breed. When the young 

 pigs begin to eat, they are well fed on corn only, and at three 

 months old are weaned; the sows are then put up to fatten, 

 and as soon as fit for market disposed of, while the young 

 pigs, having a full range of pasture, and corn, are gro wing- 

 rapidly, so that by the 1st of January they usually average up- 

 wards of 200 pounds per head. Tlie 1st of January the 

 choicest sows are selected, a boar put with them, and they re- 

 main together six weeks only. The boar is castrated, and the 

 breeding is at an end for the year. This process usually gives 

 the number of pigs required, and only six weeks difference be- 

 tween the oldest and youngest pigs. By the time the young 

 pigs are ready to eat corn, the previous crop of pigs are usu- 

 ally sold off, except the sows that have raised the pigs. This 

 has been my method of hog-raising for more than twenty years, 

 and I know not of an instance when I bred a sow the second 

 time, although, I will admit, that old sows breed a more vigor- 

 ous progeny. With this system of breeding, I am no more 

 liable to disease with my young sows than I am with the pigs 

 from full developed sows, in proof of which I have not had a 

 case of cholera among my swine. 



