208 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



particular. The points on which I should differ are in 

 connection with the matter of feeding. He is obliged to 

 feed grain, but we are obliged to feed swill, which are 

 two entirely different things. That makes a different state 

 of affairs, and of course we have to accommodate ourselves 

 to the difference. 



I keep my sows until they are five, six or seven years 

 old, and in that way I always get large litters of pigs, and 

 strong ones. I select my sows for breeding from those which 

 have large litters, and are the best milkers. I have at the 

 present time one hundred and fifty breeding sows. I have 

 about seven hundred small pigs at the present time. It is 

 policy for us to have our breeding time when other folks do 

 not. Other people have their breeding time in March or 

 April, and we want to have ours in December and January, 

 so as to have the pigs ready to sell in the early spring. 

 We do not have very much milk for our pigs, but we buy 

 some skim-milk, and give them all we can get. The man 

 who puts corn meal into the milk I think makes a mistake, 

 especially while feeding breeding sows. He will perhaps 

 lose his sows, and will be very likely to lose all the pigs. 



I will call upon a few gentlemen, and, after we have 

 heard from them, I would like to hear from any one in the 

 audience who wishes to say anything on the subject. I will 

 first call upon Professor Goessmann. 



Professor Goessmann. We have been engaged at the 

 State Experiment Station during the last four or five years 

 in raising young pigs for market. The question before us 

 was simply to ascertain at what cost the waste milk from the 

 farm, the skim-milk and milk from the creameries, 

 could be used for that purpose ; and therefore our feed- 

 ing ration was based upon the waste milk from these 

 sources. We have made a practice at the station of 

 keeping a few pigs, one for each cow, which we prepare 

 for the market. We secure our pigs at the earliest day 

 possible, say when they weigh from eighteen to twenty- 

 live pounds. We find that if we begin early with them 

 they get used to our mode of feeding, and we gain more as 

 far as the cost of feeding is concerned; because the cost of 

 feeding for the first fifty pounds differs widely from the cost 



