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box is a refrigerator, box wood and zinc; inside the covers the temperature shall be near freezing; at 35 degrees, the cream will be brought in three hours. Wouldn't use an old-fashioned churn; the rectangular is the best. Stop churning when you get little pellets; put in some cold water and salt, and drain it off. Cover your butter with some white cloth, white ash or oak packages; the packages soaked with brine are best.

The convention adjourned after passing the following resolutions :

Resolved, That the convention tender to the Welsh choir and to the choirs from Poysippi and Auroraville, their hearty thanks for their very excellent music which has added so much to the interest and enjoyment of the occasion.

Resolved, That we would extend our thanks to the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin, for the aid they have given us in paying the expenses of men from abroad, to aid in the exercises of the convention.

Resolved, That we would express our indebtedness to the trustees of the First Congregational Church, of Auroraville, for their liberality in giving this convention the free use of this church.

Resolved, That the thanks of this convention are due the president and secretaries of this convention for their efficient services in making the convention a success.

Resolved, That the secretaries of this convention be directed to forward a summary of its proceedings to Geo. E. Bryant, secretary of the State Agricultural Society, for publication in the coming volume of said society.

The fourth of the series of agricultural conventions was held at Baraboo, February 24th, in connection with the Sauk County Agricultural Society, and was presided over by Hon. J. M. True, president of said society.

Mr. Solman Braum, of Dellano, read the following paper upon

THE RAISING OF PORK, AND HOW TO MAKE IT PAY.

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Mr. President: The raising of swine for market in the past two years has been on the whole rather unprofitable business, owing to the extremely low prices which have prevailed during those years; consequently it behooves us to think and inquire

how we can, as farmers, raise and fatten hogs for market at the least cost per hundred pounds. Having had some experience in the business, I will endeavor to present my views on the subject. I have always believed it best to raise the most improved breeds, believing that high-bred animals are the most profitable, but think there is a great deal of truth in the old adage that the breed is in the mouth; in other words, there is more gain in good care and management than in the breed.

I do not think it proper to recommend any particular breed, as all improved breeds have their friends. I have always had the best success with March or April pigs. Early pigs are best for two reasons: 1st, if designed for fattening the first year, they will have acquired a reasonable growth before winter, and can be turned off before very cold weather. 2d. Early pigs stand the winter far better and make faster growth during the cold weather, if wintered over, and are larger in the spring in proportion to their age, than shoats two or three months younger, and when turned into clover pasture have larger frame and eat more, making a greater growth through to the end. I think it a good plan. to sort out, give away, kill and destroy the scrubby looking pigs while running with the mother, as I have noticed that the scrubs continue to be scrubs in most cases to the end. It is always best to get the pigs to eating well before weaning, and feed well until they are ten or twelve weeks old, on ground feed and milk well soured in a barrel before feeding. Well kept pigs at that age will have acquired sufficient size to run in a pasture, being large enough so they will not get through a good fence and into mischief. Clover pasture is as good for young pigs, with a reasonable amount of swill, as twice or three times the amount of feed, when fed to them while shut up on a floor or in a small yard. The pigs should be kept in the pasture until the grass has done has done grow. ing in the fall, and without having been crowded at all should weigh over one hundred pounds each. Then if the price of pork seems to justify, the farmer may shut up as many as convenient in a warm pen and fatten for market, as they will then be in splendid condition for fattening and will grow and take on flesh very rapidly.

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Care should be taken not to overfeed, feeding only as much as will be taken up readily, keeping the appetite sharp, for if allowed to become cloyed, will not do well afterwards. Pens for feeding should be open toward the south. Have tried feeding hogs with pen open toward the south, and also, at the same time, had hogs shut up for fatting in a pen open to the north, and without sunshine. Those having the sunshine and light thrived splendidly, while those in the pen with the northern front scarcely made any progress at all, with the same feed and care. might think this idea to be a blue grass theory, but the practice is not. I think that thinking and observing farmers will bear me out in this assertion. The pigs taken in the fall and fattened, should weigh, when nine months old, two hundred and fifty pounds live weight, without having been crowded on expensive feed but a short time, comparatively. I have not found it profit. able as a rule to fatten and sell pigs the first year, preferring to. winter and sell them early the next fall. In wintering shoats, I find that they do best to have plenty of room to run about, a large yard with a field adjoining being very good. Care should be taken that they have a sheltered place, with plenty of reasonably clean straw for bedding. I think it pays best to feed them sufficiently well in winter to keep them growing well. I have found that hogs will eat clover hay in winter with as good relish as cattle or sheep, and will pick up the hay cleaner than cattle. This winter I have made a practice of feeding clover to the shoats every day at noon, and think it profitable, saving thereby one third of the corn which would otherwise have to be used.

I see no reason why clover when cut a little green for hay, and saved bright, should not be as nutritious, and do as much good, as when eaten in the pasture, it making a very good change once a day from corn, and being cheap feed. I have an acre of Jerusalem artichokes which I intend for spring feed. Shall commence feeding as soon as the ground thaws in the spring, and feed until June, the proper way being to let the hogs in to do their own digging. I intend next fall to store a large quantity in a cellar to be fed once a day during the winter. I believe artichokes to be the cheapest feed for hogs that can be grown, as the

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yield per acre is simply enormous, reaching sometimes as high as twelve hundred bushels per acre. Artichokes make a change of feed in the spring, which seems to be just what is needed, the disposition of swine being to dig and obtain roots from the ground, particularly at that time of the year.

As soon as the clover gets a good start in the spring, towards the latter part of May or the first of June, the hogs should be turned into clover pasture, allowing five or six hogs to an acre of clover, giving them nothing else but water during the season of clovering. The hogs at the time of turning into clover should, if April pigs of the previous year, weigh two hundred and twentyfive pounds each, and be smooth enough to sell at any time, if need be, a condition which they will maintain as long as the clover remains good. It is a well established fact that hogs of this size will gain one hundred pounds or more each while in the clover, or a net gain of about five hundred pounds of pork for an acre of grass, which makes a handsome profit for the use of the land. It is a good plan to sow a patch of peas joining the pasture, which can be mown and thrown over to the hogs, or the hogs can be turned into the patch to do their own harvesting. I think the latter plan best, as they will get all the peas and leave the straw on the land where grown. An acre of peas is calculated to furnish as much or more feed than an acre of corn, and will ripen earlier, thus enabling the farmer to commence feeding earlier in the fall than on new corn.

The hogs at this time should weigh on an average three hundred and forty or fifty pounds, and if pork is low and no prospect of being higher, will be more profitable to sell than to keep any longer, but if corn is plenty and cheap, can be increased in weight by shutting up and feeding corn faster than at any other time in their existence, being in just the right condition and age for fatting. The advantage of this system of feeding being two full seasons' growth on clover and other cheap feed, with only one wintering, and that only partially on corn. By this system the farmer need not provide an acre of corn for each hog he raises, as is necessary by the old rule and style of letting them run in the highway. The direct profits from the sale of the hogs

I consider only a part of the gain, the advantage being in the increased crop grown on the land where the hogs have been pastured and fed. The land is then in condition for any crop. I have made it a practice to break up the pasture for corn, followed by small grain, and seeded to clover again with first crop of small grain, making a rotation of crops, which cannot fail to win. In fact, I think if this practice is well followed for a term of years, it will make the land rich, the hogs fat, the mortgage less, and I see no reason why the farmer may not grow fat himself.

Mr. Crawford endorses Mr. Brown's paper, every word. Mr. Grisim's experience does not agree with Mr. Brown's in regard to the use of clover. His pigs did not do well in clover. Clover is worthless, or nearly so, for food, either green or dry.

Mr. I. W. Morley likes clover for pigs. They will grow better when fed corn in the fall. Clover hay is the best food for sheep. Timothy not good sheep hay. If hogs were kept on clover we should hear less about cholera and worms.

Wm. Toole could not afford to raise hogs without clover. With it, he has made pork raising profitable, even under low prices. Cuts clover when in full blossom, if he can.

Mr. Barnes rather agrees with Mr. Grisim. Cannot raise hogs on clover profitably. Don't believe that it pays to winter pigs. He crowds early pigs, and sells in the fall at an average of three hundred pounds.

Mr. Brown would turn into clover before it was in blossom. Mr. Morley asks if artichokes will live in this climate?

Mr. Smith cannot kill them.

Mr. Morley Will hogs dig them and kill them?

Mr. Brown thinks one plowing in June will kill them. Mr. Toole, of Excelsior, read a paper on "Observations." Wishes farmers were more observing. All farm operations should be careful experiments. Has been looking for wheat which will not lodge. Odessa lodges the worst of any. Golden Chaff seems the best. There seems to be a general desire for immediate returns rather than for permanent increase of fertility. Sows one

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