SWINE AND THEIR MANAGEMENT. 935 



The statistics for the five years ending with 1881 are as 

 follows : 



NUMBER OF HOGS PACKET) IN THE UNITED STATES. 



1877, . 10,265,413 1880, . . 14,896,245 



1878, . . 12,062,236 1881, . . 16,357,360 



1879, . . . 14,480,703 



During these years a little over one-third of the hogs were 

 summer packed. 



There has been a steady increase of exports of the hog 

 product, and in 1880 it reached over eighty-five millions of 

 dollars. 



Who should raise Hogs? There can be no question as 

 to the profit of a few hogs on every farm. They will consume 

 the waste of the dairy and kitchen, follow the cuttle in the 

 barn-yard in winter, eat the weeds from the garden, as well as 

 the small potatoes and other unmarketable products, and furnish 

 at a small outlay quite an amount of lard and meat, which 

 may be consumed in the family, or will always bring cash in 

 the market. The man on a rolling farm, or one which for any 

 reason is not well adapted to corn, should remember, however, 

 that he can not successfully compete with the one who has rich 

 bottoms, or black, loamy land ; and for one thus situated to 

 make the production of pork his leading interest is to injure his 

 farm and lead to disappointment and loss. The farmer may 

 keep a few hogs at a profit, confining them to the piggery and 

 a small lot; but if he gives them the range of his farm, and 

 must on this account make all his fences hog proof, the extra 

 expense from this cause alone will often exceed the profit. 



Improvement of Stock. The matter of improving hogs 

 is at present very easy, and not expensive. We have many 

 excellent breeds from which to choose; and in many parts of 

 the country what is known as common stock is really so much 

 improved that all that will be necessary to still further improve 

 it, so as to have a pork hog of great excellence, is to use thor- 

 ough-bred boars, and by this means grade up to the desired 

 point of excellence. 



In fact, I do not consider it a part of the ordinary farmer's 



