990 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



In exceptional cases on record a considerably larger gain has 

 been made, but usually for only a short period, and it is safe to 

 assume that it will take both good stock and good management 

 to reach this result. It also shows the importance of making 

 as much of the growth of the hog as possible from cheaper food 

 than corn, and of getting his system into the condition that will 

 enable him to make the greatest gain while on a corn diet, of 

 pushing the fattening process as rapidly as possible, and selling 

 as soon as the point is reached at which the gain does not pay 

 for the corn. 



The facts connected with profitable pork production may be 

 summarized somewhat as follows : 



1st. The profitable production of pork requires good stock. 



2d. Good stock calls for good care, and only the careful 

 farmer will make hog-raising profitable. 



3d. As a large per cent of the food goes to supply the ani- 

 mal waste, the shortest period in which we can get our hogs 

 ready for the market will ordinarily give the greatest profit. 



4th. An exception to this rule will be found where hogs are 

 wanted to follow cattle or to consume clover. 



5th. Grass or other green food will enable the farmer to 

 produce much cheaper pork than corn alone. 



6th. A greater gain can be made in a given time from feed- 

 ing slop with corn than from corn alone. 



7th. It costs much less to make a pound of pork in warm 

 than in cold weather. 



The Hog as a Manure Maker. Manure produced by 

 fattening hogs is valuable because it is so condensed. Corn 

 being a rich, concentrated food, the manure made from it is of 

 the same character. I conceive the great value of the hog as a 

 manure maker to be, however, not so much on account of the 

 richness of the product as from the fact that he can be made to 

 work over crude material and reduce it rapidly to a condition in 

 which it can be used. In the chapter on manures I tell how to 

 use hogs in the barn-yard to rapidly reduce corn-stalks and old 

 straw-stacks to a condition in which they can be used even as 

 a top-dressing before the wheat-drill. Any farmer who will test 



