The Chester White is an indolent
fellow, and I suspect he loves his comfortable house, his cool stone
porch, his back yard to dig in, his neighbors across the wire fence to
gossip with, and his well-balanced, well-cooked food served under his
own nose three times a day. At least he looks content in his piggery,
and grows faster and puts on more flesh in his 250 days than does his
neighbor of the field. If the hog's profitable life were twice or thrice
as long, I would advocate a wider liberty for the early part of it; but
as it doesn't pay to keep the animal after he is nine months old, the
quickest way to bring him to perfection is the best. One cannot afford
to graze animals of any kind when one is trying to do intensive farming.
It is indirect, it is wasteful of space and energy, and it doesn't force
the highest product. Grazing, as compared with soiling, may be
economical of labor, but as I understand economics that is the one
thing in which we do not wish to economize. The multiplication of
well-paid and well-paying labor is a thing to be specially desired.
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