364 STUDYING THE MARKET. 



tion may be necessary, that it does not lead too far in the 

 opposite direction. 



Some practical dairymen think that with a dairy of 

 twenty or thirty cows they can keep from forty to fifty 

 swine, by turning into the orchard or the pasture, in early 

 spring, and as pigs, where they will easily procure a 

 large part of their food, till the close of fall, when they 

 are taken in and fed up gradually at first, but afterward 

 more highly, and fattened as rapidly and turned as 

 goon as possible. 



Others say there is no profit in working hogs, and 

 that they should be kept confined and constantly and 

 rapidly growing up to the time of turning them for 

 pork, growing steadily, but not laying on too much fat 

 till fed up to it. 



I am inclined to think the farmers of the Eastern 

 States confine their swine too closely ; and that, while 

 still kept as store-pigs, a somewhat greater range in the 

 orchard, or the pasture, would prove to be good econ- 

 omy, particularly up to the age of eight or nine months. 



The judicious dairyman will study the taste and 

 demands of the market where his pork is to be sold. 

 If he supplies a city customer, he knows he must raise 

 a fine and delicate quality of pork ; and to do this he 

 must select stock that will early arrive at maturity, and 

 that will bear forcing ahead and selling young. If he 

 supplies a market where large amounts of pork are 

 salted and packed for shipping, or for bacon, a larger 

 and coarser hog, fed to greater age and weight, will 

 turn to better advantage, though I think a strain of 

 finer blood will even then be profitable to the feeder. 

 In either case, the refuse of the dairy is of considerable 

 value, and should be saved with scrupulous care, and 

 judiciously fed. r Many a little makes a rnickle." 



