No. 4.] THE AGRICULTURAL SITUATION. 77 



market. Had those men in a business-like way held up on 

 the hogs, the market would not have been glutted, and the 

 packers would have been obliged to give more than five 

 cents a pound live weight. Now, I consider this question 

 in its business features. I have studied those features care- 

 fully. I have travelled in my business over the Western 

 States, and have seen the different conditions. 



Mr. Mills. I would like to ask, as a matter of informa- 

 tion, the weight of the hogs that the gentleman on the other 

 side of the hall (Mr. French) did not find a market for. 



Mr. French. My hogs weighed somewhere from three 

 to four hundred, I think. They were as fat as they could 

 possibly be made. 



The Chairman. What age were they? 



Mr. French. Perhaps a year and a half, or thereabouts. 

 They were raised in Woburn, Mass. I bought them as 

 shoats and fatted them, but there was no money in them 

 whatever at that price, and there was not this year. I don't 

 think they paid for the cost. 



Mr. Mills. I heartily sympathize with the gentleman ; 

 but, with all due respect to him, it seems to me that he has 

 made a great mistake all the way through. As I understand 

 the feeding of hogs to-day, the man who brings a hog to 

 weigh two hundred pounds ought to sell that hog at once, 

 and commence to feed another. A man who is raising ho<rs 

 ought to be intelligent enough to understand that the moment 

 his hog has reached two hundred pounds he should dispose 

 of him, and get another hog or a pig. I think that is a point 

 that may be of value to my friend on the left, and may 

 possibly enable him to make money out of feeding hogs. 



Governor Hoard. Mr. Chairman, I want to say a word 

 on this hog question. I think my friend here on the right 

 has convicted himself, the same as I have in past years, in 

 getting hold of the wrong end of the question, when he 

 undertook to handle eighteen-months hogs and make money 

 out of them. My son and myself handle four creameries 

 and three cheese factories, and we have handled, until our 

 patrons got too intelligent for us, quite a large number of 

 hogs. Now, we made some very interesting experiments 

 that cost us between three and four hundred dollars to 



