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Show a i' - I I. .' I ' Pork Production ii Hit litermoMRtain Country ''" (By W. L. Carlyle, Dean and Dirtier, Idaho Stats University. (Ore" 8hrt Ltao Demoattratioa Trata hw '" Many farmora bolleve that it is lm- I possible to ralsft hogs, and produae r pock la this Intorraountaln country at v a profit. Some, and perhaps ths km- .Jority of thom, bollovo that hogs can , ' not be grown and fattened at .,,., ;ft profit In nuy country where com cannot be abundantly and chcapy grown; In fact, they are not backward In expressing their con .--, vlction thnt hogs cannot bo grown and fattened without corn. After aorao years' experience In hog growing and i ' , fattonlng In this weBtorn country, wo "4 . aro convinced that theso men aro greatly mistaken, and wo bollovo that this section offers many advantages for pork production that aro not to bo found in any other section of tho United States. It may bo said that thcro are flvo prlmo factors that havo to do with profitable pork production In any country; coun-try; theao aro, first, tho ability, experience ex-perience and tasto of tho farmer; second, sec-ond, tho naturo of tho climate; third, tho character of tho soil, and Its capacity ca-pacity to produco an abundanco of -suitable food products cheaply; fourth, tho prevalonco of disease, and fifth and most Important, tho demand for pork products or tho availability of a good market. Lot ub consider briefly theso flvo factors, and apply them to our conditions, and see how nearly wo All 'tho bill In this Bectlon. In tho first in--stanco, wo havo as progrcsslvo a lot of farmers as may bo found In any section sec-tion of tho country. It Is truo that many, In fact, most of thom have not that knowledge and Bkill in tho business busi-ness of rearing nnd feeding swine that Insuros buccoss, but this skill and knowledge can be secured In a very short time with a little practical ox-porlenc ox-porlenc and caroful study. It can, -theroforo, bo said that In bc far as the first factor is concerned that our conditions con-ditions aro favorable As regards tho climate, this section 'cannot be excollod In any other part of this continent for hog raising. This Is a broad statomont, but I bollovo tho facta Bub8tantlato It. Tho weather is !Z' ,,U!UtonnlyTlry7rth(l,'8CaJomJ''arerTnod or i" G tno a'r ,,uro nnd 'rfviEorating and t the sunshine abundant nnd strong. I . There Is only ono serious objection to our cllmato from tho hog's standpoint is and that Is our extreme variation of I temperature in each twonty-four hourB; J and this objection, while n very serious ', ono, If not guarded against, Is very i readily overcome. Tho hog is by na- turo a Boml-troplcal animal, ho has a l light coat of very coarso hair at best, c and is consequently very suscoptlble to cold or chills. Again, tho hocf. has Bl no porsplratlon or sweat glands In his skin, and though ho bo a soml-troplcal ir animal naturally, la very easily over- gj como with heat. Most other animals, I! including man, aro providentially i equipped with a means of cooling tho surface of their bodies through tho ' evaporation of tho porspirntlon which j exudes from tho open pores of their j skin whenover tho temporature of tho i body rises abnormally. This mer- ; clful provision of naturo has I been donled tho hog, consequont- i ly, when he is exposed to tho j burning hot sun during tho mlddlo of j the day, and his body becomes over- i heated, he should be provided with i, some kind of sholtor or shade; and i with some means of supplying mois- j turo for evaporation from tho eurfaco j of his body. On tho othor hand, when i tho sun goes down, nnd the chill air from tho mountains descends into tho valleys in tho evening, or during tho night, the hog hnvlng no ado- 1 quato covorlng of hair Is vory readily i chilled. Tho result of which Is very apt to bo a serious loss from pneu- moni& and other pulmonary troubles. ' particularly In tho case of young pigs " jf and vory fat animate. In summer, it E io Important, therefore, that hogs should bo furnished with Bnme shol- ter In tho fields. Wo provide Bmall , "A"-shaped. eight-foot squnro hog i houses. These are cheap, easily moved from place to placo and an- I ' swer every purpose, both for shelter -1 - from tho sun nnd from tho cool night - air, providing, thoy aro well venti- 1 Js, lated. In addition to adniuite slnl- !. ' tor all pasture lots for hogs In sum- mor should bo provided with a "bath" i j - in which tho animals can go at will, . tV - not so much to clean their bodies as " to cool themBlves. Hogs should nit , ' Jl-, bo forced to make a wallow In some l' dirty, filthy, stagnant pool of water !ift" n order t0 col themselves Provldo y. ' each pasture lot with a small lank " . 5. eight by t'ight feet square and ten 4rf inches deop, made of plank t con- crote, set Into tho ground and havo . this supplied with fre3h, o!an wa'or once or tw;co a week, which wlU not hold to exceed two or th-ee barrels, i and to this btth, each week, you ,- should adi about two 'quarts of somo iuf 80od coal ,ar disinfectant. It will bo ,id found an ccol:(nt prerantlon against disease, and, partlcu'nrly. thosf of a fe parasitical mture, and la the most ef fective methrd that I know of, for keeping the an'mals feo from lice and vermin. V,"ifeU:c minor pro-- pro-- tectlons against sudden extremes In -mprrtmin. tnm citmato is certainly i ideal for hogs of all ages. Ooncernirig tho soil, llttlo need bo said for It Is Buch In almost every section thnt It will produco a maxl- : mum yield of all kinds of cereal grains, as well as peas, beans nnd other legumes, and In tho most favor- ! able sections corn crops can bo very i successfully grown. In addition to all this, wo grow here the most valuable valu-able of all hog feeds In almost per- i feet form; namely, nlfr.lfa. With al- : falfa, dwarf Essex rape and English kale for forngo a minimum amount of concentrated high priced grain Is required re-quired fer best results. Tho troublo has been, In many instances, to de-pond de-pond altogether too mu" upoa alfalfa. al-falfa. Because it is a good forage people should not make the mistake of depending upon It alone for a feed to ralso and fatten tholr hogs. The hog Is a gregarious animal and 1b physiologically and anatomically more nearly like man than any other domestic animal, his stomach, stom-ach, Intestines nnd whole Bystom of digestion nnd assimilation 1b almost al-most n counterpart of tho human, and us a result ho cannot thrlvo on coarse, bulky or vory fiberous food. U Is a good rule to follow ln hog raising, In all particulars, to put yourself your-self In tho other fellow's, place. Where you would thrlvo and wax fat, Mr. Hog will also think that ho has entered hog heaven. You would not long malntnln your health nnd BtronKth on such a food as alfalfa, cither g-flen or In tho form of hay. nor will tho hog do his best. I know that It 13 a common practice to turn brood bows and young pigs Into un alfalfa lot and thero lot thom rango during tho most of tho summer with- j out additional feed. This Is a very serloua mlBtnke; at no tlmo In his lifo history can as choap gains bo mado on tho hog as In tho early stages of his life. In an experiment conducted under my direction Jit the Wisconsin Experiment Ex-periment Station, a number of years ago, It was loarncd that tho proportion propor-tion of food of support or maintenance, mainten-ance, to total feed In a GO-pound pig wns 18 per cent; with a 100-pound pig, 25 per cent: 150-pound pig, 27 per cent; and a 200-pound pig, 3G per cent. From thla It will be soon thnt It takes twlco as much of tho total percentage of tho food nten to mnko up the food of support botween a 50-pound 50-pound pig nnd a 200-pound pig. Again, It was found that In tho case of a 50-pound pig, it required 224.4 pounds of dry matter In feed to produco 100 pounds of gain; In tho 150-pound pig, It required re-quired 312.2 pounds of dry matter to produco 100 pounds gain, and in n 200-pound pig, it required 395 8 pounds of dry matter to produco 100 PoundQfalPjErpmvtya.iLwJU-ljc. Been jhat tho earlier In life tho pig can bo Induced to nnt largoly of grain tho greater tho returns that may be Bccured from a glvou-amount of feed; nnd, th'B Is particularly truo whon tho grain feed can bo fed in combination combi-nation with alfalfa pastures. As a nalntennco ration, alfalfa will Just about sunnort a pig without allowing an thing additional for gain in we'ht. Tho more grain, therefore, that a hog can bo Induced to oat whon on alfalfa pasturo tho more rap'dly tho gain and tho grcator the profit. With barley, mill stuffs, wheat, peas, rye, oats nnd a omall amount of corn, such as can bo grown In thla country, we havo all of tho grainr. necessary for tho most profltablo pro ductlon of nork. It may be said, how over, that theso grains must ho fed in proper combination to glvo pnlata bllity and to supply tho various nut rlmonts nnd othor elements In pronr proportion for growth and development develop-ment without nny waste. During the winter montlio. roots and tubors nn1! bb beets mangels, turnip1, carrots and potatoes, all of wnich may be readily grown In this country, will bo found very vsluablo as supplemental feeds to the grain ration. In addition to this, wo havo a rap-Idly rap-Idly growing dairy Industry, and tho by-products from tho dairy In tho form of skim and butter milk, we havo another valuable food supplv which can hcBt bo utilized when fed to hogs. Concerning tho matter of dlanaa" thero Is no largo sec'lon of arable land In tho United States that Is an free from tho tnnny disposes to whlrh tho hog In heir ra 1b this Intermoun tain country. Tho "nnshlno is so bright and strong, and tho fi'mos phpre is so rare that all k'nds of germ flHpnBos havo a poor chance for development As to tho last and most important fnctor, vh'ch is tho dmand, or the markets, wo have every evldonco thai' In this respect this section of th United States Js at tho prpsont time particularly favored. Tho last census report fo" 1910 save Utah a population of 373 351 poople. Tho same census gavo Utuh a tntsj of C4.244 hog, Including young pigs, or a trlflo over ono hog for every flvo and one-half persons on tho averago, and this would require that every hog Injho state vnild havo to be slaught-en;d slaught-en;d during the year- whereas, a largo percentago of them aro kept over for breeding stock. In the case of Idaho, with a population of 325.594, we Iipvo a bos: population of 178.241; In wp'rh enno, wo have a little over onehilf a hog for each person, providing pro-viding all wcro slaughtered It can bo readily soen thnt theso two states do not in themselves produco nearly onnueh pork for tholr own supplv. The sheep men of this Intormountaln country ciBtlnnfp that It requires three pounds of pork products n day for each one of their ojmployos, which would mean that for oaoh nmninvo mt in atieop rancne, tt would" require re-quire over four nverago sized hogs annually. In addition to our local do-mnnds, do-mnnds, for which wo pay the highest prices, we havo to tho west of us a number of largo cities, particularly Spokane nnd Portlands whoro largo packing plants have been established, and for which they have found It necessary nec-essary to go to Kansas and NobraBka for tholr hogs; which they socuro in large numbers each month, paying the freight addition to tho market mar-ket prices In order to get their supplies. sup-plies. These markets bolong to our people. It nag been learned throuith the railroad agencies, that to supply the markets west of the Rocky moun-talas moun-talas It required, in 1910, approximately approxi-mately 18,OO9,00O worth of moat products pro-ducts shlppod from tho eastern markets. mar-kets. Tho larger bulk of this, perhaps per-haps 90 por cent, consisted of pork products. Surely, Uaen, wo havo for many years to come one of tho best sjunllmitcd markets in tho country. With all poBslble things In our favor, It is not too much tohopo that this Intormountaln country will soon bo-como bo-como ono of tho greatest pork producing pro-ducing contorB In Amerlcn, and such it is dostinod to booonio as soon as our farmers avail themselves or the advantages prcBonted to them for pork production, |