Swine for Profit

The Naples Record

18 February 1891

The demand for breakfast bacon has given swine a send off they could not have received from any other source. To insure character and stability to this branch of pork eating it was necessary that the product be sufficiently thick and especially tender when cooked and served. These qualities could only be present in the young improved hog; hence, from all points of view, early maturity and tendency to fatten at any age have proven to be agencies through which the modern hog has been a source of profit.

A more important reason than this is the fact that, with swine suitably bred, we secure an animal at ten months equal in weight to the hogs of a few years ago, when at the age of 20 months or over. Digestion and assimilation are at their best in the young, growing hog. This is an important factor in rendering early maturity a success. The season is an equally important factor, for we need hardly repeat the well understood fact that the percentage of food required to produce a given gain in weight must be materially added to when frost and cold nights set in. Grass and warm weather are not usually estimated at their value in the direction of placing the early litters in the market before winter.

The Western Agriculturist.