CHAPTER XXVI 
BEGINNER'S PROBLEMS 
THE most rapidly growing live-stock industry of the 
West is that of raising hogs, although even yet hog- 
raising does not assume the proportions it does in the 
Corn-Belt or with other lines of live-stock in the West. 
The hog is essentially a grain-eating animal and is grown 
in large numbers only where there is abundant grain 
of not too high a price. The West has more grass land 
than grain land, and where grain is grown, it is wheat, 
barley, or oats, instead of corn, and therefore usually 
has a higher market value than corn, although the feeding 
value a pound is not much different. It has been dem- 
onstrated, however, that by proper use of pastures 
and other supplemental feed, the cost can be made 
lower than was popularly supposed. In addition, there 
are great quantities of waste material in the grain fields 
of the West and equally large quantities of by-products 
from the dairies, all of which may be utilized for pig 
feeding so that a good profit may be realized, even when 
the grain fed does not in itself any more than return 
its cost. About the year 1910 the farmers of the West 
began to take a great interest in hogs. Prices were ab- 
normally high and the numbers of hogs increased enor- 
mously. Western markets that had been procuring 
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