No. 4.] SWINE BREEDING AND FEEDING. 207 



will be surprised to see how much it adds to the health and 

 to the digestive power of the hogs, and how quickly they 

 get away with it. 



Now, in regard to preparing my hogs for market. I 

 believe there is no more profitable way of pig raising than 

 to feed them generously from the time they are born until 

 they go to the block. In the fall of the year I draw in the 

 squashes that I have raised in my corn fields, and commence 

 to steam my food. I find there is a difference in the 

 methods of steaming food. One experiment station will 

 say, in its report, " The food should be thoroughly cooked 

 for an hour or more." Are they not making a mistake? 

 The distillery owner desires to get the greatest amount of 

 sugar possible, in order to obtain the largest product of 

 alcohol. To accomplish this he heats his grain to only one 

 hundred and eighty-two degrees. If you steam food an 

 hour or two hours, you are evaporating a great deal of its 

 food substance into the air. I believe that when food is just 

 cooked we will have the best results. I steam my squash in 

 a separate barrel, and then mix it with the other food. I 

 often read in the papers of pumpkin feeding, but squash 

 feeding will far excel pumpkin feeding in its results upon 

 the growth of hogs. 



I thank you for your kind attention. I am ready to 

 answer any questions you may desire to ask. 



The Chairman. Gentlemen, I have a few statistics which 

 I would like to present at this time. The number of swine 

 grown in the State of Massachusetts, according to the last 

 census, is 135,000 per annum, including both old and young. 

 One-half of these were over three months old, the other half 

 were under. The value of these hogs was $1,800,000. The 

 number slaughtered in the State is 1,500,000, — just the 

 number grown in the State of Wisconsin, — valued, when 

 slaughtered, at $20,000,000. The value of those exported 

 from the market of Boston is $7,500,000, — four times 

 the amount that we grow, and one-third of the amount 

 slaughtered here. 



I have been very much interested in the remarks of Mr. 

 Louis, and I can heartily coincide with him in nearly every 



