1880 



tHE LANCASTER FARMER. 



i05 



on Friday night from one to five, barrels of 

 beans, wliicli, added to tlio number cooked in 

 private dwellinjjs, will give one a coneejition 

 of how well deserving is Hoston of her fame 

 as a bean-consuming city. A well-informed 

 gentleman estimates that the consiunption of 

 beans in Boston is about ;!00 barrels per week, 

 or about 10,000 barrels per year. One reason 

 why Hoston baked beans are considered better 

 than any others is that almost invariably they 

 are baked in brick ovens over night. Besides 

 baking a (piantity to sell, the bakers, for the 

 nominal sum of live cents per pot, receive and 

 take the beans that arc prepared by their cus- 

 tomers, thus adding materially to their own 

 profit and the convenience of the public. It 

 is a flict certainly not univcr.sally known, that 

 there is in Boston an establishment devoted 

 exclusively to the baking of beans, entirely 

 separate from a canning institution. It is the 

 only establishment of the kind in the world, 

 probably, and it is exoediugly doubtful wheth- 

 er it could live anywhere else. At all events, 

 attempts have been made to establish similar 

 institutions elsewhere, and nothing but failure 

 has been the result, and it is now plain enough 

 that a bean-eating community is requisite to 

 support a bean-baking establishment. The 

 success of the Boston bean-bakery was assur- 

 ed from the start, and its enterprising propri- 

 etor has climbed up the road to wealth by the 

 bean alone, without assistance from the pole. 

 Every night in the week the fire under the 

 spacious brick oven is in full blast, and two 

 teams are kept busy daily in delivering the 

 pots and their smoking-hot contents. Of the 

 customers of tlie bakery, fully one-half are 

 restaurant keepers, who pay 20 cents for two 

 quarts of beans, and then retail them at 10, 

 15 and 25 cents per plate. The bakery con- 

 sumes from 1900 to .3S00 pounds of beans per 

 ■week, and its oven has the capacity to bake 

 450 pots in a single night. It is, perhaps, 

 worthy of note that the bakery is located in a 

 fashionable part of the city, within a stone's 

 throw of Washington street. In conclusion, 

 it may be said that the Athenian fondness for 

 baked beans continues to increase rather than 

 to decrease, and that, in spite of what the 

 world may say, Bostonians intend to have 

 them Saturday nights or Sunday mornings. — 

 Boston Ilerald, June 26. 



^ 



S\WINE INDUSTRY. 



The following article on swine, from the 

 Prairie Farmer, contains some valuable facts: 



The proportions which the swine industry 

 has reached within the past five or six years 

 are indeed marvelous. We have hitherto 

 published the figures showing the rapid in- 

 crease which has marked the history of this 

 branch of business, and need not produce 

 them now ; but to indicate its present propor- 

 tions we may say, in passing, that the esti- 

 mate of Hon. .J. R. Dodge, the eminent sta- 

 tistician, places the number of swine required 

 for the hog products exported from this coun- 

 try in 1879 at 0,000,000. The money value of 

 these products, exported by the United States 

 during the last fiscal year was $79,438,980. 

 The value of the hams which went to make 

 up the aggregate was $51,074,433 ; of lard, 

 $22,856,673 ; of pork, S4,867,.")68 ; of live hogs, 

 $700,262. Our meats find their way to all 

 portions of Europe, and although it some- 

 times happens that they meet with a preju- 

 dice, born, doubtless of jealousy and close 

 competition, still they are sought for more 

 and more every year. From these figures an 

 approximate idea maybe had of the enormous 

 number of swine required to supply the home 

 and foreign trade, and of the important posi- 

 tion which swine-raising occupies among our 

 great rural industries. 



Our purpose in referring to this matter is to 

 call attention again to the importance of 

 rearing improved stock. It is true that far- 

 mers quite generally recognize the fact that 

 "land pikes" and "razor-backs" are a poor 

 investment, and that Berkshires, Poland- 

 Chinas, Suffolks and Essex give far greater 

 returns for the food they consume than ordi- 

 nary or average hogs of mixed breeds, or no 



breed at all. The butcher, or the "expert'' 

 who buys for the packing-houses, dis(!erns at 

 a glance the quality of the hogs which com(^ 

 under his eye. lie selects, witlio\it dilliculty 

 such as he desires for a particular purpose, 

 lie knows that the best hogs of improved 

 breeds give extra choice hams and shoulders 

 for smoking, and that in all respects and for 

 all i)inposcs these breeds fulfill the reipiire- 

 nients of the trade far better than animals 

 indiscriminately Ijrcd. 



In raising hogs, as in other departments of 

 live stock husbandry, the interest of the 

 farmer is to get the most money for his care, 

 labor and feed. It has been shown repeatedly 

 by experiments that well-bred lierkshires and 

 Boland China swine will, und<T favorable cir- 

 cumstances, iiroihu* twelve pounds of jiork 

 for a bushel of corn. These instances may 

 not be very numerous, but they shuw what 

 can be done, and done without much difti- 

 culty. From a list of experiments in feeding 

 swine made in several States, the lowest ave- 

 rage was five and three-quarter pounds of 

 pork to a bushel of corn fed on the ground, 

 and the highest an average of twenty pounds 

 made Ijj' feeding a pair of pigs green corn in 

 the ear. From thirteen experiments made, 

 the average of every bushel of corn was ten 

 pounds of pork. With a good breed of swine 

 properly cared for, five and six-tenth pounds 

 of corn ought to product; one pound of pork, 

 or one bushel of corn ten pounds of pork. 

 This is a better average than is generally ob- 

 tained, but it is both possible and practicable. 

 Instead of six pounds to the bushel — which is 

 a fair estimate with inferior animals to con- 

 sume the grain — the farmer ought not to be 

 content with less than ten pounds. 



It is not difficult to calculate what one is 

 doing in feeding corn to hogs in the way of 

 returns. If one bushel of corn represents ten 

 pounds of pork, and the price of pork is $3 

 per hundred the farmer is receiving 30 cents 

 per bushel for his corn, and if pork is $4 per 

 hundred he is getting 40 cents for corn. 



These facts are significant in breeding and 

 rearing swine. They indicate the conditions 

 that are required in or to secure the best re- 

 sults — to obtain tlie most satisfactory returns. 

 To make the most money in this branch of 

 farming, the first requirement is good .stock 

 of improved breeds, which can now be had at 

 reasonable prices. It should not be expected 

 that animals of superior quality which pos- 

 sess the desired characters that are found in 

 the improved breeds can be purchased for the 

 same price that is asked for an animal of in- 

 ferior breeding or no breeding at all. It has 

 taken many years of study and judicious care 

 to develop and "fix" the characteristics which 

 constitute the especial value of improved 

 swine. It is eminently proper that those who 

 have put time and money into this enterprise 

 should receive the benefit of good prices for 

 their stock. And that it pays to buy such 

 stock at good prices has been demonstrated 

 by thousands of farmers from one end of the 

 country to the other. 



HOME BRED AND IMPORTED JER- 

 SEYS. 



If breeders will take pains to obtain the 

 yield of their cows separately throughout the 

 dift'erent seasons, by recording the weight of 

 each milking, and at frequent intervals test- 

 ing the percentage of butter, so that an ap- 

 pro.ximate estimate for the year can be made, 

 they will not only enlighten themselves veiy 

 much on comparative values in their own 

 herds, but be able to learn, by consultation 

 with one another, how near their best cows 

 approach the highest known standard. Those 

 who can show the highest results for a given 

 strain of blood, have then a powerful argu- 

 ment with practical buyers ; and the practical 

 side of the question can soon be made the 

 fashionable side. 



The accident of thorough breeding has so 

 often been made to cover a multitude of defi- 

 ciencies that he is many times quite right in 

 holding back until the more wealthy cjin offer 

 a clear and indisputable demonstration that 



the animals offered are not only pure repre- 

 suntatives of a superior breed, but that, as 

 breeders, the owners have produced, and are 

 oll'ering, animals that class high in those 

 qualities tor which the breed is; recognized. 

 1 believe that there exist, say tifty cows, and 

 half as many bulls, among the whole ten 

 thousand .lerseys in the country, that are 

 worlh all the rest combined for seed stock for 

 the improvement of the general breed of cat- 

 tle for butter dairying. 



Could there be any mode, except test by 

 breeding, for discovering their identity, and 

 the rest annihilated to make way for their 

 full Tisefulness, one generation's grading would 

 effect greater improvement than it is possible 

 for tlu'ee crosses to make under the present 

 indiscriminate system. But tlu; poor ones can 

 not be annihilated, except as they arc crowded 

 out by better ones. To effect this is a i)oint 

 of the utmost importance to breeders who as- 

 pire to be improvers, and in fact is about the 

 only course left them, for the mere handling 

 of Jerseys, as such, is taken out of their 

 hands. 



My estimate of the special comparative 

 values which .some individuals bear for breed- 

 ing purposes may seem radical, hut the 

 records in other branches' of live stock, where 

 not only pedigrees, but .tested performances 

 are traceable through : a large number of 

 generations, will support the claim, as I will 

 endeavor to illustrate hereafter. In order to 

 breed systematically for the greatest improve- 

 ment, a certain knowledge of quality must be 

 had, not only of the animal under considera- 

 tion, but of its ancestors. Xot alone is this 

 necessary, but breeders should also be able to 

 form a close estimate of comparison between 

 the tested capacitj' of the strain he is breed- 

 ing from and the greatest possible capacity of 

 of a cow of the breed. 



It is in this last particular that I think 

 breeders are failing. With all deference to 

 their enterprise and acumen, I believe that 

 very, very few of them have anything like a 

 true conception of the possible achievements 

 of a .lersey cow, and that, for want of certi- 

 fied evidence on this point, are contenting 

 themselves with breeding material far below 

 the true standard at which they should aim. 



That such .should be the case is not strange. 

 The field is yet a limited one, and has not 

 been systemized. It is human nature to give 

 great weight to personal experience, and 

 ignore that claimed by others. "What, in 

 j'our opinion, is the greatest possible yield of 

 butter that a .lersey cow is capable of for the 

 period of one week, at her best ?" is a ques- 

 tion that I have asked a great many breeders. 

 The variation in the replies has l)ecn .so great 

 as to show conclusively to my mind that no 

 accepted standard has been effected. Further- 

 more, the more moderate estimators quietly 

 shrug their shoulders and look incredulous 

 when told of far greater yields than their own 

 cows have shown. "He is honest enough in 

 his belief, but (in a whisper) his help has de- 

 ceived him." 



Now, what is to be done in such a state of 

 affairs V Manifestly at the present stage of 

 the interest it is a fact, unpalatable though it 

 may seem, that breeders of .Ier.seys, with the 

 most laudable cause to back them, are not 

 one-half as well posted in their vocation, and 

 hence not as able in their achievements, as 

 the breeders of race horses and trotters. They 

 show less directness in sifting the wheat from 

 the chaff and establishing a high standard. 

 It seems to me this might readily he accom- 

 plished by organizing a system of certified 

 tests to be kept in record, so guarded that the 

 public could place reliance upon their correct- 

 ness, in order tluvf the best cow may not 

 necessarily belong to the greatest liar. Nor 

 should this be confined to good Jerseys alone. 

 Let all compete who pay the fees. The Herd 

 Eegister vouches for purity of breed. The 

 test record should award indiscriminately, so 

 that out of accumulated records a butter 

 breed of the greatest possible capacity may be 

 established, whether purely of one now recog- 

 nized breed or not. 



