PRACTICAL PAPERS—PORK RAISING. 
310 
a breed they are too coarse for the summer market, which has, 
been our best market for several years past. 
The small breeds are not adapted to the wants of the west¬ 
ern farmer; they may suit the eastern states where few hogs 
are kept, and those few fed with great care, and where they 
have to be shipped but a short distance to market. When 
raised in large droves, as we do at the west, they will not 
thrive so well. With us there is twice the profit on a pound 
of pork made from grass than on that made from corn, and what 
will be most profitable to us is a hog that will grow two sum-~ 
mers on grass and fatten at 18 or 20 months of age. 
The profit of raising pork depends much on the manage¬ 
ment in breeding and feeding. I breed principally fiomsows 
one and two years old, and have the pigs come in April and 
May. Each sow should have a separate pen, but should be 
let out each day for exercise, while the pigs are retained in 
the pen. When they are four or five weeks old, both should 
be turned cut together in a pasture to feed on grass, giving an 
additional mess three times a day. It is highly beneficial to 
change the feed often. Shelled corn, corn meal steamed, and 
swill made of bran and shorts are excellent for nursing pigs. 
Pigs when a few weeks old will eat shelled corn eagerly, and 
it sliould be given to them each day; but of course there i& 
nothing better for them than milk. 
The hog house should be so arranged as to be warm, and at. 
the same time be well ventilated, for early pigs are tender and 
often suffer from the cold. Western farmers are, as a class, 
particularly negligent in this matter, and their losses are con¬ 
sequently great. It is extremely poor policy to withhold sbel-. 
ter and protection from this kind of stock, for even should they 
possess great power of endurance—which we think is gener¬ 
ally over-estimated—it is at the expense of thrift and animal, 
vigor. It may require less present labor and present outlay 
for food to allow them half starved to hunt their shelter during 
the inclement season of the year, but it costs dearly in the 
end. The food given might be sufficient in comfortable quar¬ 
ters to keep up the vital forces and have something over ta 
