658 



NEW ENCxLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



of space required by a dwarf pear tree and its 

 early bearing, are advantages which warrant 

 the planting of a few in the garden, as curios- 

 ities and pets as well as for the fruit they may 

 yield. Our cut is designed rather to illustrate 

 the theoretical than the practical, as a tree that 

 should be allowed to produce the amount of 

 fruit represented would be likely to exhaust its i 

 powers if not its vitality. The best cultiva- j 

 tors thin out the fruit severely, and find that a 

 few nice specimens will sell for more money 

 than a much larger amount of inferior fruit. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 PORK-MAKING TN MASSACHUSETTS, 



In the Fat!Mkr of July 1 5, friend Fisher, of 

 Franklin, refers to a statement of mine in re- 

 gard to feeding and selling pork. He says he 

 quotes from memory and the language may not 

 be quite correct, bnt the idea is given. The 

 article to which he referred is in the Farmer of 

 June 3, where I said that, "I find it impossi- 

 ble to keep exact accounts' with dairy stock. 

 I can buy a pig for $10, feed him $10 worth 

 of meal and sell him for $25, and know that I 

 have made a profit of $5, allowing the value of 

 the manure to be equal to the cost of labor of 

 taking care of him." 



Now I must say to your Franklin correspon- 

 dent that I was not intending to discuss the 

 profits of pork-making at all ; but only used 

 those figures to show how much more difficult 

 it is to keep a correct account with a dairy than 

 -with a pig, because an account with a pig can 

 be commenced, and finished up in a few 

 months, — while an account with dair}^ stock 

 must run through several years, and estimates 

 must be made of the value of the animals at 

 different times, instead of prices found by ac- 

 tual purchases and sales. 



However, as hogs are now the subject of 

 discussion 1 will say that I do not think my fig- 

 ures were very extravagant in allowing a profit 

 of five dollars on an animal. By referring 

 back to old accounts with my swine, I find even 

 better returns than that. 



One year 1 bought, A pril 3, two pigs, weigh- 

 ing 43 i-2 pounds each, for $5 a piece, or $10, 

 ami fed grain to the value of $15.88. Oct. 

 28, sold 632 pounds of pork at (5 cents per 

 pound, wholesale, amounting to $37 92; giv- 

 ing a gain uf $6 02 on each hog. The meal 

 averaged that year $1.33 per bag of 100 

 pounds. 



The last few years I have sold my pork at 

 retail and have done better with it, — saving 

 to myself the profits that would have gone to 

 the '"'middle men.'" As Mr. Fisher says, lam 

 a butter-maker, and feed sour milk to my pigs. 

 He sells his milk, and of course has to buy 

 most if not all he feeds to his swine. If I 

 ■were selling my milk 1 would keep very few if 



any hogs. Certainly no more than enough to 

 supply the family demand. 



Having plenty of skimmed milk through the 

 warm months, I have considered T was getting 

 something for it when fed to pigs. I think, 

 however, that farmers generally place too high 

 a money value on a quart of milk for hog feed. 

 One of the best experiments I ever made did 

 not pay over two-thirds of a cent a quart for 

 the milk fed to a pair of hogs during their whole 

 growth. The younger the pigs the more 

 the milk is worth. For this reason I have 

 always endeavored to buy very young pigs 

 and grow them myself in preference to buying 

 shoats ; and for the last two or three years I 

 have kept no hogs during the winter, because I 

 could sell all my milk during the cold weather 

 for family uses. Last spring the prospects 

 looked so unfavorable for pork-making, I was 

 tempted to pour my milk directly on the ma- 

 nure heap and thus save the labor and care of 

 feeding bogs. 



Old habits are strong. I am not certain as 

 I could ever make up my mind to use sweet 

 Indian meal as a manure, as some of the West- 

 ern Massachusetts farmers are said to have done 

 with profit. It ought to be worth more as food 

 than as a fertilizer ; and so good, sweet or sour 

 milk, after taking off the cream, cniglit to be 

 worth more as food for either man or beast 

 than as a fertilizer. So I bought three pi 's 

 the first day of last April. Small pigs were 

 scarce and high. Six weeks old suckers 

 brought $6 a piece, even if they would not 

 weigh more than 25 pounds each. I had at that 

 time milk enough to have fed a dozen of that 

 size for a few weeks. I concluded to buy 

 three larger ones instead, that weighed 75 lbs. 

 each at $10 apiece. 



And now I can tell brother Fisher just how 

 profitable pork-making has been to me this 

 year. Supposing I sell at wholesale prices for 

 round hogs, the account would stand thus : — 

 April 1 — To 3 ehoats, at 75 lbs each 



. $30 00 

 58 l"bs. meal, at 77 20-58c ... 44 86 

 263 lbs. shorts 5 04 



Oct. 19— By 3 hogs, wt. 308 lbs each, ©7^0. 



Loss 



79 90 

 69 30 



$10 60 



The highest price I have heard of any hogs 

 being sold this fall is 7 l-2c. per lb., and I 

 have dressed one of mine and it weighed as 

 above. I could not through the whole time of 

 feeding tell one from another, and I have 

 been perfectly satisfied with their growth. 

 Perhaps others, by using cooked food, could 

 have done better. 



Every one knows that the past season has 

 been a losing one for all pork-makers, unless 

 it is made from what would have been wasted 

 if it had not been fed. But if one believes in 

 pork-raising, he must not give it up because of 

 one poor season. There is every reason to 

 believe prices will be more satisfactory before 

 another crop of pork comes on the market. 



I do not, however, believe in pork-raising 



