FORTY-SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION 177 



oivxn you the profits of my last year's business on feedin.o: hogs 

 but you must remember that corn was excessively high the en- 

 tire year. I buy very little ear corn, however, but use mostly 

 ground corn and quite a little bran for finishing. If corn had 

 been at a normal price, or if the hog market has been corres- 

 pondingly as high as corn, the profits would have been far 

 greater. 



My present hog farm consists of only fifteen acres and I 

 am going to run out of land to fertilize. In the past two years 

 I have covered that little place with fertilizer, and I fee! sure 

 that I have increased the fertility of the soil fully 200 percent. 

 This winter we are feeding about three hundred head of hogo, 

 and from these three hundred hogs we get from three to four 

 tons of manure a day. Hog manure is conceded to be worth 

 more than any other kind of manure, therefore its value should 

 be at least $2.50 per ton. Here is an item of profit which i havQ 

 not mentioned before, and it is indeed a big one. 



Of course, in the past year we have had some misfortunes, 

 if you will permit me to call them such, but I think the proper 

 name would be mismanagement, but I have profited by my ex- 

 perience and have learned a great deal about handlin.g hog's. 



Cholera is one of the diseases that has made hog raising 

 discouraging in many communities with a great many farmers. 

 Cholera, we know, is a germ disease. Therefore, even with the 

 greatest care given hogs, they can take it under the most ideal 

 conditions ; but I do claim that a hog kept in perfect health and in 

 perfect condition, has a greater immunity from the hog cholerg 

 germ than a hog whose condition or vitalit}^ is run down, c^uch 

 a hog is susceptible to any germ disease which may come along| 

 and is very easily infected. 



As yet, we have never had a case of cholera ?nd we ha.\e 

 from 300 to 600 head of hogs on our place at all times. We 

 have had cholera within a half mile of us, but my first tliought 

 has always been to watch the physical condition of the hogs. 



Questions following Mr. Nelson's address : 



Q: Do you have cement floors in your hog house?' 



