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Streeter, John Williams

"The Fat of the Land The Story of an American Farm"

There was likely to be an abundance of food. I was
more willing to sell it in pig skins than in any other packages. My plan
was now to turn off, not 200 hogs each year, but 600 or more. I had 60
well-bred sows, young and old, and I could count on them to farrow at
least three times in two years. The litters ought to average 7 each, say
22 pigs in two years; 60 times 22 are 1320, and half of 1320 is 660.
Yes, at that rate, I could count on about 600 finished hogs to sell each
year. But if my calculations were too high, I could easily keep 10 more
brood sows, for I had sufficient room to keep them healthy.
The two five-acre lots, Nos. 3 and 5, had been given over to the brood
sows when they were not caring for young litters in the brood-house.
Comfortable shelters and a cemented basin twelve feet by twelve, and one
foot deep, had been built in each lot. The water-pipe that ran through
the chicken lot (No. 4) connected with these basins, as did also a
drain-pipe to the drain in the north lane, so that it was easy to turn
on fresh water and to draw off that which was soiled.


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