48 A MANUAL ON THE HOG. 



object, which he will keep in view, and adhere to it, if he 

 would attain success. 



This object will depend upon his surroundings, and the 

 purpose for which his hogs are to be used. 



If his object is to raise thoroughbreds, with a view to 

 selling the offspring for breeding purposes, he must con- . 

 sider, carefully, the needs of the farmers to whom he ex- 

 pects to sell, and select such pure breed as will be best suit- 

 ed to the circumstances of his expected customers, wheth- 

 er bred pure, or crossed upon the common stock of the 

 country. 



If his object, as will generally be the case, be to raise 

 the most profitable hog for bacon to be consumed on the 

 farm, his surroundings must have an important influence in 

 determining the character of stock to be bred. 



If he has large forest range, where the hogs are expected 

 to find their own living, on natural products, which cost 

 but little, he will succeed best with an industrious, slow- 

 maturing breed, which will keep healthy on but little food, 

 and have the industry to seek it in the forest. The im- 

 proved breeds, which mature rapidly, and require much 

 of their food supplied them by their owner, will not suc- 

 ceed under the above circumstances. 



If he expects to keep his hogs in his fields, on crops 

 planted for them, a cross of pure bred Berkshire, Essex, 

 Poland China, or Jersey Reds, on large native sows, will best 

 suit his purposes. A cross of the Jersey Red on the native 

 would probably succeed as a " range " hog, and produce 

 more pork than the common grade stock now used in Geor- 

 gia. 



The best hog, for general purposes, in Georgia, is ob- 

 tained by crossing the large native sows with Berkshire, 

 Essex, Poland China, or Jersey Red boars, and killing 

 September pigs at eighteen, and the spring litters at nine, 

 or ten, months old. The pigs farrowed in September will 

 make large meat when eighteen months old, suited to feed- 

 ing negro laborers ; the spring pigs, pushed through the 



