A MANUAL ON THE HOG. 35 



health and thrift. While the farmer of the frozen, or snow- 

 covered North, is feeding his hog?, in costly houses, from 

 his garnered stores of grain, for six months of the year, ours 

 require only simple shelters, well supplied with pine straw, 

 or leaves from the woods always accessible, and costing 

 nothing but the hauling as a bed for the night, while they 

 luxuriate in green pastures of rye, or barley, or in gather- 

 ing rich nuts from the fragrant, upturned soil during the 

 day. Notwithstanding the fact that Georgia was, in 1860, 

 so largely a planting State, she ranked seventh in the num- 

 ber of hogs owned, and, even in 1870, after the losses of 

 the war, she ranked ninth, notwithstanding the most fla- 

 grant neglect on the part of the farmers, under the para- 

 lyzing influence of their losses, occasioned by the results 

 of the war, and the complete disorganization of our entire 

 labor system. With the same care and attention bestowed 

 now, that was given to raising hogs in 1860, Georgia need 

 not purchase a pound of pork from other States. Indeed, 

 it can be clearly demonstrated that pork can be raised as 

 cheaply in Georgia as in any State in the Union. This 

 subject will be fully discussed under the next head. Even 

 under the present neglectful system, the average cost per 

 pound of pork raised in Georgia it was reported 8j^ 

 cents in 1875 is several cents per pound less than it costs 

 our farmers to purchase from the West, besides being of 

 decidedly better quality. 



CAN GEORGIA RAISE A HOME SUPPLY OF 



PORK ? 



% 



As far as soil, climate and productions are concerned, 

 there is certainly no reason why this question should not 

 be answered unhesitatingly in the affirmative. 



The difficulties lie not in these, but in the habits of the 

 people, the fondness of the negro for fresh pork raised at 

 the expense of others, and the difficulty of keeping up 

 the fences of the form with the present labor system of 

 the State. 



