204 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



When my clover is well started, I put a movable fence 

 through the field so as to divide it according to its size, and 

 the sows and pigs are turned upon it, and they are now fed 

 only twice a day in the stable. They are driven to the field 

 the first and second mornings ; I do not have to drive them 

 there the third morning, for every little fellow will skip 

 there. They love clover. They stay there all day. If there 

 is no shade on the field, I remove some of those little houses 

 that I have described, and set them up on the field so that 

 the animals can have shade. These houses stand independent 

 of the floors, and the floors are not brought to the pasture. 

 It is abusive to turn a hog into a field for grazing purposes 

 without providing shade for him. They always have access 

 to water. I now commence to soak my shelled corn, and feed 

 it upon the floor of the stables. My floors in the stables are 

 swept clean. Professor Henry used to say that I stole the 

 brooms from my wife to sweep my hog pens. But let me 

 interrupt myself here. There is considerable virtue in this. 

 In the first place, it adds to the health of the hog, and in the 

 second place, when parties from Eau Claire City, from St. 

 Paul or from the large surrounding villages come to my 

 place, they say to me, " Mr. Louis, won't you kill and pre- 

 pare meats and sell them to us ? " Now, I believe that 

 there is an opening for the Massachusetts farmer in a home 

 market in private families, for well-prepared meat. When 

 people know that a hog is kept in clean pens and fed in a 

 cleanly manner, they will buy the meat. 



In the morning, as I have said, my sows and their pigs 

 are turned out in the field, and at night they are returned, 

 fed in their regular stables and are confined there through 

 the night. Each sow has her separate stall with her 

 pigs, and each sow knows her stall and each pig knows 

 its sty as well as a cow knows her stanchion. The 

 manure is distributed upon the field during the day, but 

 that made during the night is saved for application to my 

 corn fields. I put my hog manure on my sandy land, and 

 raise one hundred and twenty-five bushels of ears of corn 

 to the acre. Very few farmers in the West ever think of 

 saving hog manure. If a yard is well littered, your stables 

 will be as clean as need be. The hog is one of the most 



