200 ADAMS COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 



I have never been able to make an estimate on the cost of 

 growing a bushel of wheat. While I am not sure that I have 

 made much money on it, I do know that others in Adams 

 county have made fortunes. 



HOGS. 



I mainly depend on hogs and corn for profit. These I 

 market three times a year, to wit : Fall, Winter and Spring. I 

 put my hogs on clover about tlie first of May, let thera run 

 until harvest is over and grain stacked, then turn them on 

 stubble. About the fifteenth of August I commence feeding 

 old corn, lightly at first, gradually increasing to as much as 

 they will eat up clean. I slop them once a week with bran 

 and shipstuff, and keep a trough in the pen in which there is 

 always salt and wood ashes. When green corn begins to get 

 hard, I cut it up and feed with the old corn, scant enough so 

 that they will eat most of the stalk. About the tenth of Sep- 

 tember I turn them on a piece of corn, eight or ten acres to 

 one hundred hogs: when this is cleaned up, I feed on this 

 ground thereby saving all the manure. 



During the month of November I sort out about one-half 

 of our fattest hogs, which will weigh three hundred pounds or 

 more and sell them. The remainder I feed till about the holi- 

 days and sell them for Winter packing. The pigs have all this 

 time been running with the fat hogs. I now sort out all the 

 best feeding barrows (leaving all the sows to breed from) and 

 continue to feed them until about the first of April when they 

 will bring the best market price. When I am ready to sell, I 

 never wait for a higher price, and in some of these sales I 

 usually hit one or two good markets. I sometimes buy and 

 make a February sale, which, with us, is the most remunerating. 

 I always make eight pounds of pork to one bushel of corn ; 

 it is not safe to calculate on more, especially when I buy the 

 corn. For all markets I prefer the Poland China crossed with 

 Berkshire. I have my pigs come as hear the first of May as 

 may be. 



HOG PEN. 



My hog-pen is a long ten-foot shed east and west, 



