304 THE FAT OF THE LAND 
but I do not think this prudent. When a pig 1s 
250 days old, if he has been pushed, he has 
reached his greatest profit-growth ; and he should 
be sold, even though the market be low. If one 
could be certain that within a reasonable time, 
say thirty days, there would be a marked advance, 
it might do to hold; but no one can be sure of 
this, and it doesn’t usually pay to wait. Market 
the product when at its best, is the rule at Four 
Oaks. The young hog is undoubtedly at his best 
from eight to nine months old. He has made 
a maximum growth on minimum feed, and from 
that time on he will eat more and give smaller 
proportionate returns. There is danger, too, that 
he will grow stale; for he has been subjected to 
a forcing system which contemplated a definite 
time limit and which cannot extend much he- 
yond that limit without risks. Force your swine 
not longer than nine months and sell for what you 
can get, and you will make more money in the 
long run than by trying to catch a high market. 
I sold in December something more than four 
hundred cockerels, which brought $215. The 
apples from the old trees were good that year, 
but not so abundant as the year before, and they 
brought $387, — $2.25 per tree. The hens laid 
few eggs in October and November, though they 
resumed work in December; but the pullets did 
themselves proud. Sam said he gathered from 
fourteen to twenty eggs a day from each pen of 
forty, which is better than forty per cent. We 
