Southern planter - The W&M Digital Archive

18 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [January,
SWINE HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH; NECESSITY
FOR SUCCESSIVE GRAZING CROPS.
The Hog Omnivorous and Ubiquitous.
Editor Southern Planter:
An Ohio farmer who is extensively engaged in raising
hogs for market remarked recently that "Among the important
reasons why hogs are profitable is the comparatively
limited area in which they can be economically
produced, and subsisting on corn they are not a profitable
proposition except within the limits of the corn belt,'
so-called. To the above declaration I beg to enter both
a demurrer and a plea, the former because his statements
are not in harmony with the laws governing the
nature of the hog and the latter, because they misrepre-
sent existing facts. In Europe, Canada, many parts of
the Northwest and in the South hogs are raised profitably
without corn. Corn has its place and a very important
place in hog feeding, but there are substitutes and it is
now an established fact, amply proven by careful experiments,
that corn alone does not furnish satisfactory nu-
trients for the hog. It must be balanced with nitrogenous
compounds and roughages must be furnished in the form
of pasturage in summer and stored crops in winter to
maintain the health, vigor and prolificacy of the animals.
There is not a State in this Union where pork cannot be
economically produced. Prof. Cottrell, of the Colorado
Experiment Station, has recently issued a statement show-
ing that hogs are being produced very profitably in that
State entirely without the use of corn. Barley, rye, cow
peas, clover, alfalfa and wheat products, with digester
tankage, will put the balance sheet right without -an appeal
to the corn belt. In one instance, a Mr. Hart, near
Denver, put 122 pigs, twelve weeks old, on eight acres of
alfalfa pasture. No grain was fed. The pigs were sold in
the fall for $1,100. They were worth $250 when turned on
the alfalfa, giving $850 in profit from the eight acres.
Virginia has become a great fruit producing State and
many of the orchardists are finding that hogs go well with
the orchard, the crops that are raised in them, and the
abundance of shade.
Virginia and other sections of the South have superior
advantages for dairy husbandry and the demand for high
grade dairy products was never greater. Hog raising fits
in admirably with almost any scheme of dairy farming
and if a prize were offered for the best and most econom
ical production of pork, some dairy farmer would be sure
of the reward. Skim milk is unquestionably the best
possible adjunct to successful pig raising. If skim milk
cannot be had digester tankage will prove a close second.
The Michigan Experiment Station, as well as many others,
including the Virginia Station, secured excellent results
with tankage, when fed in the proportion of from oneeighth
to one-tenth of the concentrated diet. I have
found both digester tankage and linseed meal a valuable
ration in winter feeding.
The writer has received numerous letters in regard to
cottonseed meal as a protein substitute for skim milk.
Theoretically, from the standpoint of digestible nutrients,
Live Stock and Dairy.
it should be a valuable feed for hogs, but it has a toxic
eflect on swine which usually proves fatal, unless fed in
a very restricted way and should not be recommended to
the inexperienced feeder.
The South as a Field for Swine Husbandry.
No section has more advantages and fewer disadvantages
to offer the swine breeder to-day than the South. Long
growing seasons, an ideal climate, plenty of pure water,
numerous wild and cultivated foods and the comparative
freedom of the section from disease, together with an unsurpassed
home market, make the South the most favored
area on earth for the production of pig products. Prof.
S. M. Tracy, of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, in
Bulletin No. 100 says: "The Southern States can produce
corn almost if not quite as cheaply as the most favored
regions of Illinois and Miscjuri, while the much greater
variety of food crops, the more nearly continuous grazing
and the consequent greater immunity from disease give
special advantages for profitable pork raising which do
not exist elsewhere."
In 1900 fully 9.0 per cent, of the pork consumed in the
South was shipped into this section from the great pack-
ing houses of the Middle-West. Millions of dollars are
sent out of this section annually for meat that could have
been produced at considerably less cost at home. Recent
statistics show, however, that during the last few years
an increased interest has been developed throughout the
South in breeding and raising hogs. The animated razorback
plow is no longer seen and many fine herds of purebred
hogs are maintained in every Southern State. It
has been found that the hog is the real mortgage-lifter
among the domestic animals and by putting money into
the purse of his owner he has found a short road to pub-
lic favor. But while a keener interest is being manifested
in swine husbandry throughout the South, old methods
are being largely adhered to, with attendant meagre results
in many cases, while a change of methods would
mean a better condition for the hogs themselves with
A DDROC-JEIISEY SOTV
larger profits for their owners. It has been estimated
that from one to two million additional hogs could be