EXPERIMENTS IN HOG RAISING. 435 



action. I have always bred with special reference to action 

 and style, as well as size. My colts are most of them too 

 young to estimate their real value. We shall see what we 

 shall see. I also have a few colts designed for the carriage 

 and the saddle, which are of the Bashaw Hazard and Stonewall 

 Jackson strains. 



HOGS. 



The breeding of swine has been with me for some years a 

 specialty. My stock in this line is pure-bred Magiesor Poland 

 Chinas. For several years I have purchased sows and boars in 

 Butler county, Ohio, and I have studied closely the nature and 

 habits of hogs. If I have any hobby now, it is swine breeding 

 and like most hobbies, it don't pay any too well. But I believe 

 it will pay some time and shall continue to breed carefully, and 

 also shall hold on and wait for something to turn up. 

 Have not made much money. I have always kept my hogs 

 healthy, and though many of my neighbors have lost their 

 entire herds, mine answer to roll call with great regularity and 

 show no signs of feverish pulse or wasting cough. 



I first tried Chester Whites. Some years ago the cholera 

 held off until I had something over a hundred head of this 

 breed ; then it just made one job of it. I next tried the Berk- 

 shires. They were pretty, very active, and apparently ironclad, 

 but I must have obtained the small kind, as mine would never 

 grow big. A friend then induced me to try the Poland Chinas. 

 I was so pleased with my success with them that I concluded 

 to send to Ohio, to D. M. Magie for a pair. And each year I 

 have sent to headquarters for fresh blood at fancy prices. Still 

 the price of pork went down, even below the cost of production, 

 and I began to look around for the means of making pork 

 easier to raise. I housed, herded, slopped, ground feed, fed it 

 cooked and raw, and still the price ran down. I still held on 

 for "something to turn up.'' Nothing did, except the cholera 

 among my neighbors' hogs. I became nervous over it. Every 

 time a pig would cough I feared cholera. The next affliction 

 was the hog doctor. He and his remedies proved almost as 



