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of grain in a three-bushel barrel " ) , has given the Western farmer no 

 small advantage. This competition, instead of discouraging, should 

 stimulate our farmers to secure the very best ])reeds and to pursue 

 such a wise system in their care and management as shall make this 

 department of their farming pay. It can be done, and our farmers 

 owe it to themselves that they do this, or cease to keep that which so 

 many now declare to be so unprofitable. Such farmers, however, 

 should blush to own themselves beaten by the humble Irish cottager, 

 who, with few, if an}' of the natural resources, such as are incidental 

 to a well managed farm and dairy, finds it highly profitable to keep 

 one or more " Gintlemin" that, if necessary, goes to pay the " rint," 

 or to furnish himself and family with their year's stock of meat. 



SELECTION OF BREED. 



No small amount of the profits in feeding pigs will depend upon the 

 breed. Therefore, in selecting the hog best adapted to the wants of 

 the New England farmer, an animal neither too large and coarse, nor 

 one too small, should be chosen. While in some sections a black hog 

 is all the rage, the color being no objection, in others, it is looked upon 

 with such dislike that however excellent the breed or tlie animal, its 

 color is such a fault that the breed is condemned. Therefore, the 

 farmer who intends to breed pure bloods to sell for breeding purposes, 

 or expects his neighbors to use his thoroughbred sires to cross on 

 common sows, will do well to consult the taste of the farmers of the 

 locality in which he lives. 



With the great advantage to be secured by the use of the best 

 improved breeds, and which skillful and monej^-making farmers have 

 not been slow to discover, it is unaccountably strange that there should 

 be a class of farmers so blind to their own interests as to continue to 

 keep and breed the "Racer" or " Landpike " breed in nearl}' its 

 original purity. These original sub-soilers are never quiet, — either 

 squealing, rooting, or tearing their pens to pieces, all the time. No 

 wonder their unfortunate owners bewail the hard times and speak the 

 truth when they say " that their hogs are a dead loss to them, eating 

 themselves and their owners out of house and home." Why such stock 

 is kept from becoming extinct is because there exists a class of farmers 



