The world needs and will pay you well for all the hogs you can produce. Aside from the pork products required for consumption in America, the hog growers of the United States must for years export to Europe more pork in various forms, and more lard, than ever before.
The European herds of hogs have been sadly depleted. Dr. Vernon Kellogg, of the United States Food Administration, has personally investigated the situation. He reports decreases in hogs in leading countries as follows: France, 49 per cent.; Great Britain, 25 per cent.; Italy, 12-1/2 per cent. And, of course, conditions are even worse in Germany, Austria and the Balkan Nations, all of which are big producers in normal times.
Properly handled, kept healthy and vigorous, the American hog is a money-maker. Many farmers know this from experience: others fail to realize how useful and profitable the hog really is.
The experts connected with the United States Department of Agriculture make the following assertions in Farmers' Bulletin 874:
"No branch of live-stock farming gives better results than the raising of well-bred swine when conducted with a reasonable amount of intelligence. The hog is one of the most important animals to raise on the farm, either for meat or for profit, and no farm is complete unless some hogs are kept to aid in the modern method of farming. The farmers of the South and West, awakening to the merits of the hog, are rapidly increasing their output of pork and their bank accounts. The hog requires less labor, less equipment, less capital, and makes greater gains per hundred pounds of concentrates than any other farm animal, and reproduces himself faster and in greater numbers; and returns the money invested more quickly than any other farm animal except poultry."
The University of Minnesota, in Extension Bulletin 7, sums up the matter as follows:
"From a business point of view, the hog is described as a great national resource, a farm mortgage lifter and debt-payer, and the most generally profitable domesticated animal in American agriculture."
And this summarizes the general opinion of progressive hog growers and the experts connected with the United States Department of Agriculture and the various State Agricultural Experiment Stations and Colleges.
Breeds of hogs are divided into two general classes—bacon type and lard type. Where milk is plentiful, and especially where such foods as barley and peas are grown, the bacon type will be the most profitable, as they furnish the largest litters and also make pork that brings the best price in the market. The lard type of swine are usually kept where corn is the cereal that is most grown.
The large Yorkshire and Tamworth are the leading bacon breeds. The Poland China, the Duroc Jersey, and the Chester White are leading lard types. The Berkshires, Cheshires, and Hampshires are intermediate between the bacon and lard types. When bacon sires are crossed upon sows of any of the other breeds, the progeny are excellent for pork.