220 HARRIS ON THE PIG. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



THE PROFIT OF RAISING THOROUGH-BRED PIGS. 



A farmer who reads the preceding chapter will be very 

 apt to ask " Will it pay to be at all this trouble to raise 

 pigs ? Will it not be better to keep a kind that does not 

 require so much attention ?" 



In the first place, it should be remarked that, we do not 

 advocate keeping thorough-bred pigs to be fatted and sold 

 to the butcher. They are raised for the purpose of im- 

 proving our ordinary stock ; and we have already at- 

 tempted to show what is the value of a thorough-bred 

 boar for this purpose. Suffice it to say here, that he is 

 worth much more than he is ordinarily sold for. We be- 

 lieve that reliable breeders of thorough-bred pigs are 

 often unable to supply the demand for boars ; and it is 

 certain that, as their value for improving our common 

 pigs becomes more generally recognized, the demand will 

 become far greater. At the present time, not one boar in 

 a thousand, kept for use in the country, is thorough-bred. 

 The American agricultural press, which is becoming a 

 mighty power for good in the land, is doing valuable ser- 

 vice in calling attention to the importance of using none 

 but thorough-bred males of all kinds of stock, and the pros- 

 pects of breeders never were more encouraging than now. 

 As general intelligence and civilization increase, so in-, 

 creases the demand for flesh meat of good quality ; and 

 the prices paid for it warrant us in using every means in 

 our power for increasing the supply. In the future, as in 

 the past, the price of pork will fluctuate ; but with our fa- 

 cilities for transportation, and the ease with which pork 

 can be cured and shipped to any part of the world, the 

 American farmer is pretty certain of getting a fair price 



