162 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



saying the corn area is going farther north each year, but our 

 yield per acre has grown smaller each year and I think in a 

 greater proportion than the area has been spreading or the new 

 land developed on which to raise com. I feel that we are at the 

 turning point in that respect. We must grow less acres and 

 more corn per acre. We have learned that what we thought was 

 inexhaustible land is proving less productive each year and will 

 continue to become less and less productive each year imless we 

 put something back on that land. 



In raising hogs there is one line along which I have done a 

 good deal of experimenting. I started out to raise a bacon type 

 hog. I started out last summer by weighing up two different 

 types of hogs, one a bacon type and one the so-called lard type 

 of hogs, to determine for myself the difference in the cost of pro- 

 duction of lOO pounds. The thing might happen to any hog 

 man that is bringing in new stock all the time. Cholera struck 

 us last year while I was absent from the farm and the hogs in- 

 fected did not receive attention as promptly as tliey should have 

 had it, so the figures I had been keeping for the records for the 

 benefit of others as well as myself, are of no value. When I ar- 

 rived home I had 800 head of hogs. The first one I saw had 

 died of cholera ; still my foreman did not think we had cholera, 

 even then. There was no question in my mind about it ; I knew 

 that we had real cholera among our hogs. So, of course, 1 had 

 to get busy at once as all of our statistics and all of our records 

 went up in the air. The herds that were not infected, we mar- 

 keted to a very good advantage; we vaccinated the rest. That 

 had been my intention as soon as I saw any signs of cholera. 

 The men in the business that I am in should vaccinate their stock, 

 I knew that, but I kept putting it off until such time as this 

 should come. I had arrangements with the Serum Company to 

 come and vaccinate them, but it was several days before that was 

 done, which should not have been, but we did not lose a single 

 one that was not afflicted. We did lose some of those vaccinated 

 which had a fever of 106 degrees. We could possibly have un- 

 loaded them on the market as that is done quite frequently. I 

 am not here before you as a saint, but I would have felt guilty 

 to have marketed such a lot of hogs and I feel, especially now 

 when we have the preventative at hand, it would be a crime to 



