THE FARMERS' REGISTE 



Vol. Vll. 



MAY 31, 1839. 



No. 6. 



EDMUND RUFFIN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. 



STATEMENT OP THE COST AND PROFITS OF 

 AN EXPERIMENT IN FEEDING HOGS. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Philadelphia, Jpril 20th, 1839. 



When agricultural experiments are fairly and 

 carefully made, and their results recorded, I think 

 they have great value, (let the results be what 

 they may,) Ibr which reason, I send you the fol- 

 lowing account of the cost of buying, raising, and 

 feeding a lot of hogs, and the value produced. I 

 ■am encouraged so to do because I have every con- 

 fidence that implicit reliance may be placed in the 

 statements of my friend who furnished me with the 

 account. It was not prepared Ibr publication, but 

 was sent to me in the course of a familiar corres- 

 pondence. 1 have lately mentioned to my friend 

 my wish to send it to yon. He did not object, but 

 as he did not specifically authorize me to attach 

 his name to it, I must send it without. I will 

 mention, however, that he is one of the most suc- 

 cessful pupils of the late George H. Walker, and 

 that he is doing much to improve his farm, which 

 is in New Jersey. Peter Hulme. 



I herewith send you an account of expense and 

 profits arising from ftjeding hogs, as taken from 

 memoranda strictly kept. These porkers were 

 ied with my own hands from beginning to end, 

 and all their feed was measured and charged by 

 m5'self; so that you may rest assured, upon my 

 responsibility, that every thing is as correct as pos- 

 sible. 



I am convinced that had T had a good breed, 

 instead of one of the worst, I should have been 

 the gainer by at least one-third. But as it has 

 turned out, it is decidedly preferable for a farmer 

 (removed from market,) to feed away all his grain 

 than to sell it. As I fed my hogs a great deal on 

 boiled food I went to the expense of purchasing 

 wood, although I had sufficient on my farm, that 

 no expense might be incurred without being justly 

 charged. 



As I killed my hogs very earl}-, their weights are 

 not heavy — another loss; as I now consider the 

 longer a hog is fed, (if he is a good feeder,) the 

 more profit. That is, when a hog becomes lazy 

 whh fat and is inclined to spend all his time, ex- 

 cept while eating, in lying about and sleeping, 

 he puts on more tat than in the early sfase of feed- 

 ing, when he uses a good deal of exercise. How- 

 ever, as I mtend next year to feed my porkers till 

 they become something worth looking at, and as 

 I shall still keep an account with them, I shall be 

 more fully prepared to speak positively on this 

 question. The fact is, every fiirmer who wishes 

 to try experiments in feeding, should have some 

 means of weighing his cattle weekly, so that he 

 might tell to a certainty whether he was makin<r 

 or losing money, as well as what food was the 

 cheapest, or rather, gave the most nourishment. 

 There is entirely too much guess work in all our 

 operations, which must be the case until study, 

 capital, and liberality in the use of money, are 

 united to our exertions. 

 Vol. Vn-33 



As it is not necessary give you a list of every 

 purchase, I will set down the cost of hogs, the ex- 

 pense of food, wood and pasture ; and give you 

 items of credit in pork, shoats, lard, &c. 



This account is somewhat lame as respects the 

 worth of the pasture and manure. JMy hogs fed 

 until harvest on three acres of ground covered 

 thickly with trees, (an apple orchard, trees forty 

 feet apart, interspersed with peach trees,) which 

 owing to the dry summer, would not have netted 

 me 810 per acre in any other crop, and which I 

 consider a fair valuation tor the pasture. After 

 harvest they had the run ofafiHeen acre field. 

 The after-math you may value at what you please. 

 It was of no use but to pasture, and I do not con- 

 sider that farmers ought to take it into considera- 

 tion, as it is the only u-ay it can be applied ; and I 

 doubt not, the manure left upon the land well pays 

 for the pasture eaten. However, to sum up the 

 whole concern, I think the manure in my barn 

 yard made by the hogs, worth a great deal more 

 than the use of the land before harvest and all the 

 orrass after, I would not take, at a rough guess, 

 §75 for my hog dung. Their pasture before har- 

 vest consisted of white clover ; (the field had been 

 idle two years and covered itselJ' with grass,) after 

 harvest they had the run of a stubble field lor three 

 weeks ; and after that red clover pasture. During 

 their pasturins, which was from May 5th to Sep- 

 tember 3rd, they had no drink but water, with the 

 exception of my small pigs, which had, in addition,^ 

 after they left the sows, a weak swill, the slops of 

 the house and Indian corn and oats ground to- 

 gether. I had not much milk to spare, as I only 

 keep five cows, and have a large family to con- 

 sume a great deal of that article. The feed of 

 my hogs, from the commencement until killing, 

 was entirely merchantable food — corn, oats, rye, 

 bran, and oil cake, and charged at a price I should 

 have had to give for those articles il'I had bought 

 them. 



On the 9th of March, 1838, I purchased nine- 

 teen hogs at a vendue, for which I paid ^lOO. 

 Four of them gave me twenty pigs on the 12th 

 and 13ih of April. On the 19l'h March, I brought 

 home a sow and eight pi<rs, three days old, for 

 which I paid 814. 'The eight pigs I killed this 

 winter for my own use, the weight of which I will 

 give you presently. B»'sidps this, one of my 

 sows stole a bore and had six pigs on the 27th of 

 June. 



Now the whole cost of hoirs, first cost and feed, 

 (excepting pasture,) until killing time, amounts to 

 the sum of - - - •- ^494 91^ 



My credits are as follows : 

 1838, Bv 38 lbs. piir pork, eaten 



■bvtheflmiilvat9cei-its, 83 42 

 Dec. 6, bv 20 hogs, wi. 4617 lbs. 



at 9r. - - - 415 53 

 8, bv 93 lbs. gut lard, at 



i4c. - ^- " 13 02 



11, by 50 lbs. pi": pork, at 9;\ 4 .50 



15, bv 5 shoals sold alive, 14 30 



31. by 3. do do. 7 50 



1S39, Jan. 15, bv 9 upr'ws: pics, 



wt. 1706 lbs. at 9 cents, 153 54 



