130 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



time this litter of ten pigs has cost comparatively little. For 

 the next two months the little pigs would need the richest and 

 most easily digested food that can be given them. The first 

 month they would eat about one pound of corn-meal a day, 

 thoroughly cooked and made into gruel. The next month 

 they would eat one and a half pounds each per day. At the 

 end of the eight weeks the ten pigs will have eaten seven 

 hundred pounds of corn-meal, and probably about one hundred 

 pounds before they were weaned, say eight hundred pounds 

 in all, costing, at two cents a pound, $16. 



I do not know what ten such little pigs would sell for, 

 averaging, say fifty pounds each, dressed, but I think they are 

 as well worth fifteen cents a pound as common mutton is 

 worth eight cents. At this price, we get $75 from the litter, 

 which has consumed $16 worth of corn. It may often happen 

 that young pigs are so scarce and high that we can sell them 

 as store pigs to better advantage than we could fatten them at 

 this early age. But all that this proves is, that we get more 

 than they are really worth. For my part, I do not know of 

 any branch of farming that would pay better than to raise 

 such pigs and sell them at four months old for $7 or $8 a 

 head. And, I am very sure, that if such an article was fairly 

 introduced, it would be in great and increasing demand. 



And I am equally sure, that we can breed pigs that will 

 dress, on an average, more than fifty pounds each at four 

 months old. I showed a pen of five pigs, four months old, 

 at the New York State Fair, that weighed within a fraction 

 of one hundred pounds each. These were thoroughbred, but 

 I could do full as well, if not better, with grades. 



We are afraid of competition from the West, — wherever 

 that may be. But, I am inclined to think, that by studying 

 the wants of our markets and by paying more attention to 

 quality, we shall be able to hold our own. We must aim to 

 produce choice meat and rich manure. 



I will not say we can make more money and more manure 

 from pigs than from any other stock. But I think there are 

 few farms where more or less pigs cannot be kept with 

 advantage. A pig will produce more flesh and fat from a 

 given amount of food than any other of our domestic 

 animals, — at any rate, far more than either sheep or cattle. 



