No. 4.] SWINE BREEDING AND FEEDING. 221 



between fifty and sixty pounds, for six cents a pound live 

 weight. You may think that I had better have kept them ; 

 but for my own interest I thought I had better dispose of 

 them at that price. If we have good, clean, handsome pigs, 

 they will sell themselves, and there is no trouble usually in 

 the health of the hogs. I want to say right here that, after 

 careful observation for years in breeding swine in this 

 way, I think they are as profitable as any class of farm 

 stock that I keep. But it has been suggested here this 

 morning that it is no use for everybody to try to breed 

 swine. Well, gentlemen, unless you are willing to jump 

 out of bed any time in the winter, grab a lantern and go to 

 your pig pen, and, if you find there is a sow in labor, stay 

 there with her until morning, — unless you are willing to do 

 it, and know how to do it, it is no use for you to try to 

 breed hogs. I employed for nine years on my farm one of 

 the best men to take care of dairy stock that I ever had, 

 and he tried year after year to keep a pig and raise his own 

 pork, and he utterly failed every time, until finally 

 I begged that man never to try to raise another pound of 

 pork. Every time he went to feed his pig he had to have a 

 fight with it. To-day I have a man on my farm that I 

 would not like to trust to feed my swine ; and to-night 

 when I return I shall be surprised if I do not find more 

 feed in the trough than they have eaten for the last twenty- 

 four hours. It is not in him to feed a pig. 



I say you must abandon the idea that you can keep 

 pigs any how and any way, in dirty, filthy pens, and 

 make a profit ; but, if you keep them as I have suggested, 

 putting them upon the market when the market demands 

 them, I know of no more profitable class of farm stock 

 than swine, and if we have sympathy with them and enjoy 

 keeping them, it is a good business. 



Mr. Ware. I would like to ask Mr. Louis whether the 

 breeding sows turned into his clover do not root it up, 

 or does he ring them ? 



Mr. Louis. Yes, sir ; there is trouble in that direction. 

 I am very prompt to put rings in their noses. 



Adjourned to two o'clock. 



