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FARM NOTES
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Getting Into Hog-Raising.
There seem to be many reasons
why the South should develop a large
hog industry, but as a matter of fac
hog-raising has proved neither attrac
tive nor profitable to a large majority
of the Southern farmers who have
tried it. ,
There must be reason for the slow
progress of the hog industry in the
South which does not lie on the sur
face, for considering the facts that
breeding stock can be obtained with
a small investment, returns are rea
sonably quick, and the climate of the
South offers opportunities for the
cheap production of a large variety ot
excellent hog feeds, the industry
should be easily increased and prove
profitable. . .
The question why hog raising docs
not increase more rapidly is the one
with which we are at present chiefly
concerned. ... ,
The failure of the hog industry to
develop rapidly in the South is prob
ably chiefly due to difficulties in feed
ing and caring for hogs when kept in
considerable numbers, and this, not
withstanding the great advantages of
a mild climate and a great variety of
grazing crops.
In the first place, hogs, like many
other kinds of livestock, must have
more personal attention and require
more care in handling than the aver
age Southern man is willing to give
them. They increase rapidly, and in
proportion to their size are large con
sumers of feed; hence, they soon de
velop problems of housing and feed
ing which require not only much
thought hut considerable effort to
solve in a satisfactory manner.
The hog does not require expensive
housing in the South, except that he
must have dry sloping quarters in
winter and shade in summer; hut un
less given large range he soon pro
duces disagreeable conditions about
the places where he is confined. We
have not yet fully appreciated these
facts, and consequently have attempt
ed to house and confine our hogs in
too small quarters. A hog will live in
a small lot if there is a mud hole and
a little feed furnished him, hut this is
not the most pleasant nor the most
profitable way to handle him.
First, then, we have tailed to pro
vide suitable houses, pastures and
lots for conveniently caring for hogs,
and second we do not like to give any
animal the attention the hog requires,
especially at farrowing time and until
the pigs are four or five months old.
To avoid disappointment, we should
start with a small number of sows, for
the rapidity with which a herd of
hogs increases and demands increas
ed care and feed arc truly astonish
ing. Especially should ample lots
and pastures be provided. Land is
cheap and there is no excuse for fail
ure to provide ample area for "grow
ing prnzing crops, except the cost of
fencing. The cost of fencing is a
really serious obstacle to the growing
of hogs, here in the South, where we
have been accustomed to doing little
fencing and that of a nature insuffi
cient for controlling hogs.
itut undoubtedly the greatest ob
stacle to the raising; of hogs in the
South is that we grow no grain crop
suitable for feeding hogs which is
cheap enough to feed to hogs. Corn
is the American hog feed, hut so
long as we grow 20 bushels or less
per acre we cannot afford to feed
corn to hogs. In fact, we simply will
not do it.
Our long growing season and the
variety of splendid grazing crops wo
may grow for hogs is an advantage,
hut we have not yet learned to over
come the disadvantage of high priced
corn in hog-raising. The hog has a
small stomach and requires concen
trates or grains for his best growth.
He needs and can use to advantage
grazing crops, but crops cannot be
grazed all the year, and in most cases
our best grazing crops require that
some grain ho fed to obtain the best
returns from them. Until we solve
this problem of reasonably cheap con
centrates, which of themselves or in
combination with grazing crops will
form a fairly well balanced ration, we
cannot make a success of hog raising.
If we are ever to have a large hog
industry, producing large numbers of
hogs for pork-making, we must build
up a breeding industry. The breeder
of pure-bred hogs to be sold for
breeding purposes finds all his profits
consumed by his feed bills. He must
sell his breeders for less than the
Northern breeders and pay a higher
price for his feeds, because they are
produced in the North and have to
hear the extra cost of transportation.
The hog industry in the South is
therefore, a question of feeds, espec
ially concentrates, for feeding sur
ging sows, young pigs and for winter
ing the breeding stock.
There are two crops which will sup
ply these needs. Neither alone will
do it, but the two together, along
with grazing crops, will do it admira
bly. Both can be grown at a price at
which we can afford to feed them.
They are corn and soy beans. Our
problem as relates to corn is to pro
duce larger yields and lessen its cost,
while the problem as relates to soy
beans, which we need to supply the
protein concentrate demanded, is to
increase their acreage.
When peanuts and soy beans are
grown largely enough to cause them
to be used for oil making and the
yield of corn is doubled our problem
of hop feeds will have been solved.
But until then what are we to do?
Although it can be made very profit
able, the hog industry will grow
slowly until we c^ase to be a feed
buying section. Until that time, we
must use a minimum or the smallest
possible amount of grain feed or con
centrates and a maximum of grazing
crops. At present, even those who
plant crops like soy beans, peanuts,
corn, sweet potatoes or other crops to
hog off usually provide entirely too
small an acreage for the hogs to be
grazed.
A yield of 40 bushels of oats per
acre followed by 25 bushels of soy
beans the same season will mean re
latively cheap hog feed, as soon as
we learn to grow these crops. At
present we grow practically only one
concentrate for feeding hogs—corn—
and grow only 20 bushels or less of
that per acre.
Let me repeat, the hog problem is
one of feeds and hog-men. We must
first produce feeds and then be wil
ling and know how to feed and care
for hogs before we become large pro
ducers of hogs.—Progressive Farm
er.
Poor Cow. Medium Cow, (iood Cow.
“Pulling teats” in a wearisome job,
unit1:.;; you are getting good money
for it. There are thousands of farm
ers all over the corn belt today who
look on milking as a grinding chore,
simply because they don’t make much
money at it.
The surest way to make more
money milking is to buy better cows,
if you have to pay two or three
times as much for them. Most farm
ers have never taken time to figure
out just how much more a good cow
will do for them than a poor cow.
Let’s consider the case of the poor
milk cow, costing at the present time
about $60 as a five-year-old, and
giving when fresh about two and a
half gallons a day. She is a type of
the ordinary Short-horn milk cow
which you see in every barnyard.
What will a cow of this sort do for
you in a year, if you sell the cream
to a creamery, and keep the skim
milk at home for the calves and the
pigs? She will produce about 4,250
pounds of skim-milk, worth about
$17; a calf worth about $5, manure
worth about $10, and cream worth
about $70, or a gross amount of
$102. What does she cost you?
Worst of all is the cost of grain, hay,
silage and pasture, worth about $00
at present feed prices. Next comes
about $25 worth of labor, and, consid
ering the everlasting grind of it, this
price is certainly low enough. And
there arc miscellaneous items, such
as possible doctor bills, service fees,
he co: t of barn shelter, deprecia
tion, etc., making a grand total of ex
pen. e of about $09.60, or a net profit
■ f $2.40. 1 have called such a cow a
poor cow, but as a mater of fact, she
is really the average eow. She is the
typo which makes so many thousands
of farmers and farmers’ boys hate
milking time.
The medium cow, which costs you
about $1(10 at the present time, will
give right around four gallons a day
when fresh. She will produce for you
;n a year about $27.20 worth of skim
milk, a calf worth from $5 to $10, de
pending on whether a heifer or a bull,
$11 worth of manure, and cream
worth $112, or a total of about $158.
She costs about $10 more to feed
than the poor eow; it takes longer to
milk her, and in the course of a year
you have to spend about $5 more
time on her. She is more likely to
have doctor bills. You have to charge
off more every year to cover interest
on the investment and depreciation
■is she gets older. There is consider
ably greater risk of such a cow los
ing a quarter of her udder. But, all
'hose tilings considered, the total ex- i
pen so i s only about $180, leaving a
act, profit of $28 for the medium cow.
lake now the case of the ordinari
ly good cow, costing $150, and giving
ive or six gallons of milk when fresh.
Such a cow will give you in a year
about $30 worth of skim-milk, a
heifer calf worth $15 or a hull calf
worth $5, $12 worth of manure, and
>154 wor of cream, making a
grand total of $213. To feed such a
•o\v requires about $30 worth more of
grain than for the poor cow. She
takes longer to milk, and has to he
watched much more carefully if you
are to avoid udder trouble. After such
a cow passes eight years of age, she
depreciates very rapidly in value un
til, by the time she is fourteen, she
;s worth hut little except as a canner
cow on the beef market; and yet, tak
ing all these things into considera
fion, the total expense of such a cow
is only around $157, leaving a net
Drofit of $5fi>.
Which will you take—poor cow, me
iium cow, good cow? I knew men
who would make a very serious mis
take in selecting the good cow. They
ire really “poor cow” men. I mean to
say that they do not know how to
take care of cows; that, while it re
ally pays them to fill up their spare
time by milking a fe” poor cows, that
hey do not like cows well enough to
give them the care necessary to make
a success with good cows. There are
thousands of such “poor cow” men
who would find it impossible te make
the profits I have indicated on medi
um or good cows, for the simple rea
son that no one has ever taught them
how to take care of anything else but
poor cows. I have known such men to
have really good cows in their herds,
but they produced very little more
than the poor cows, under the “poor
cow'” conditions. “Good cow” men
have rescued such cows from their
poor conditions, and have occasionally
made extraordinary records with
cows which everyone supposed didn’t
amount to much.
If you are prepared to give “good
cow” conditions, by all means buy
good cows, to make a profit for you
out of those conditions. If you know
anything at all about dairying, the
chances arc that one four-gallon cow
will make more clear profit for you
than ten two-and-a-half-gallon cows.
And one five or six-gallon cow may
make more money for you than twen
ty tw'o-and-a-half-gallon cows.
I hope that thousands of the boy
readers of this paper will come to
know and like good cows, and, what
is more important, that they will
learn how to feed and care for good
cows. Remember that the poor cow is
worth while only for the man wrho
takes no real interest in milking. She
is good mainly to take up the extra
time of the men folks in the early
morning and late evenings.—Wal
lace’s Farmer.
Save the Manure.
In pood seasons and in bad, on
rich soils and on poor soils, on well
drained and on undrained soils; in
fact, on all soils, all seasons and on
all crops stable manure has proved
itself valuable. No matter what fer
tilizers are used or what crops are
grown, the more stable manure made
this winter and the better it is han
dled the larger will be the next year’s
crops.
Rich soils, those well supplied with
stable manure, and good farming
methods make the farmer almost in
dependent of the seasons. Under the
most favorable soil and weather con
ditions almost anyone can make good
crops, but good soils and good farm
ing show their value when the seasons
are unfavorable. A soil well filled
with decaying stable manure will
stand any drouth likely to occur in
the South; and yet, there are few'
crops, soils or seasons in which a lack
of moisture at some time does not
lessen the yields. The best insurance
against drouth is a deep, well-tilled
soil, filled with decaying organic mat
ter.
It is not easy to say too much
about the value of stable manure, but
nevertheless there will he thousands
of tons of its wasted this winter in
every Southern State.
These remarks are for the purpose
of stressing the importance of giving
more attention to saving all the ma
nure possible this winter.
Most of the fertilizer value of the
liquid manure is lost. The urine con
tains more than half the fertilizer
value of the manure from horses, cat
tle and sheep. Two-thirds of the
nitrogen and four-fifths of the pot
ash are in the urine. This shows how
important it is to supply the stables
with an abundance of bedding or
litter, sufficient to absorb the urine,
and it also shows the importance of
protecting the manure from rains
that will leach out the soluble plant
foods. One-half the dry matter and
from 80 to 90 per cent of the fertilizer
value of the feeds used are found in
the manure and when sufficient bed
ding is used the manure may actually
eon;ail more plant food than the
feeds used. This is particularly true
with manure fattening animals.
Now is the time to provide sheds
and beddings, so as to save the ma
nure made. And remember that the
place to rot manure is in the ground
and not in a compost heap. A ton of
fresh manure will give as great in
crease in crops as a ton of well rotted
manure and it takes two tors of che
fresh m make one ton of the rotted
manure. Also, the best place for the
manure is in the soil not on it, but
if the land is fairly level or if there
is a growing crop on it, little will be
hst by spreading the manure on the
surface. There will bo practically no
loss into the air. The only material
loss will be when the manure is ac
unlly washed away and off the land.
Progressive Farmer.
Average Cows Do Not l'ay.
Estimates on the value of the aver
age dairy cow’s production in New
York State, made by the College of
Agriculture, give a yearly total of
$66.09. Costs of maintaining her are
estimated at $61.85, not including the
cost of labor. The difference, amount
ing to only $4,25 per cow, would give
the man who cared for twenty cows
a yearly wage of $85, which is less
than the lowest wage paid to ordinary
farm labor.
Scrub cows are largely responsi
ble, it is said, for this poor showing
and they must be weeded out if dai
tatfmer. Herds may be improved by
“grading up” with a purc-bred bull
or by the purchase of purc-bred ani
mals. Grade cows may be obtained
that will give high yields, though
ry herds are to be profitable to the
their offspring are not always as val
uable in the market as those from
pure-bred animals.—Cornell Univer
vented it. It seerns to me had I
Slip a few Prince Albert
smokes into vour system!
•.i.
T.bu.01
You’ve heard many an earful about the Prince Albert
patented process that cuts out bite and parch and lets you
smoke your fill without a comeback! Stake your bank roll that
it proves out every hour of the day.
Prince Albert has always been sold
without coupons or premiums. We
prefer to give quality!
Lke your bank roll that '
Fringe
Albert'
There’s sport smoking a pipe or rolling
your own, but you know that you’ve got
to have the right tobacco! We tell you
Prince Albert will bang the doors wide
open for you to come in on a good time
firing up every little so often, without a
regret! You’ll feel like your smoke past
has been wasted and will be sorry you cannot
back up for a fresh start.
the national joy smoke
\
l
x ou swing on tnis say-so like it was a tip to
thousand-dollar bill! It’s worth that in happi
ness and contentment to you, to every man
who knows what can be
gotten out of a chummy
jimmy pipe or a makin’s
cigarette with
Prince Albert for
“packing”!
iassata
mwIiH
R. J. REYNOLDS TOBACCO CO.
Wiiuton-Salem, N. C.
This is the reverse
side of the tidy
THE Prince
/
y
Albert tidy
red tin, and in
fact, every Prince
Albert package, has
real message-to-you
on its reverse side. You’ll
read ‘ Process Patented
July 30th, 1907.” That means
that the United States Govern
ment has granted a patent on the
process by which Prince Albert is
made. And by which tongue bite and
throat parch are cut out! Every
where tobacco issold you’llfind
Prince Albert awaiting you
in toppy red bags,5c: tidy
red tins, 10c; handsome
pound and half-pound
tin humidors and in
that clever crystal
glass humidor, with
sponge - moistener
top,that keeps the
tobacco in such
fine condition—
always!
• AM
“Ten Degrees Down!”
But the shrinkage of the mercury doesn’t
concern your comfort if you’ve been fore
handed with a Perfection Smokeless Oil Heater.
It stands for preparedness against sudden
weather changes. Gives comfort insurance
when the furnace has an off day. Drives away
those little fall chills that &. coal fire’s too ex
pensive to cope with.
Warms bedroom, bathroom, and library. You can
carry it anywhere; and it’s always clean, durable, and
good-looking.
More than 2,000,000 users are its endorsement. Ask
any good department store, furniture or hardware man
Use Aladdin Security) Oil—for best results
STANDARD OIL COMPANY
(New Jersey)
BALTIMORE
Richmond, Va. Charleston, W. Va
Charlotte, N. C Charleston, S. C
Washington, D. C
Norfolk, Va
PERFECTION
SMOKELES^lOJi^HEATERS
FOR SALE.
My farm, containing 111 acres, lo
cated on the National Highway, two
miles from Benson. Graded School in
one and one-half miles, seven
churches within a radius of two miles.
Land in good state of cultivation,
good 80 acres cleared, balance in
pasture, fort}-five acres in cover
crops this winter. Price $9,000, one
third cash, balance in six years.
Also one 15-horse power gasoline
engine; one set mill rocks; one tile
machine and fixtures; and one feed
mill.
J. H. HOLMES.
Benson, N. C.
SEE OUR LINE OF STOVES AND
Ranges—we have them from $10 Of
up, with all the ware. Cotter HarH
ware Company.
CABBAGE
“PLANTS
Millions of nice size, Early Jersey
Wakefield, Charleston Wakefield and
Henderson’s Succession Plants for
sale. By mail 20 cents per 100; Ex
press $1.50 per 1000; 2000 or more
$1.25 per 1000.
Special low prices on large orders
or to merchants.
Plants delivered anywhere.
Ten years’ experience.
JNO. W. MITCHENER, JR.
Smithfield, N. C.
L. G. STEVENS
Attorney At Law
)tfice Over The Herald Office,
Settlement of Estates.
Smithfield, N. C.
ED. A. HOLT
Dealer in
High Grade Coffins, Caskets
and Burial Robes,
Princeton, • North Carolina
SMALL FARM FOR SALE.
I offer for sale 25 acres of land,
acres cleared, six-room dwelling an.
good out buildings. Located in Ele>»
tion township, being a part of the^
A. Barbour tract of land. For further
information see or write,
MALONIA BARBOUR
Four Oaks, N. C., Route No. 4.