The trade in country dressed hogs varies materially from year to year. Since the big packing houses have become so prominent in the industry there is, of course, less done in country dressed hogs, yet a market is always found for considerable numbers. Thirty years ago Chicago received as many as 350,000 dressed hogs in one year. With a growth of the packing industry this business decreased, until 1892, when only 5000 were handled at Chicago, but since that date there has been a revival of interest, with as many as 60,000 received in 1894 and an ever changing number since that date. Thirty years ago the number of hogs annually packed at Chicago was about 700,000. This business has increased since to as many as 8,000,000 in a year, the industry in other packing centers being in much the same proportion. At all packing centers in the west there are slaughtered annually 20,000,000 to 24,000,000 hogs.

Compared with the enormous numbers fattened and marketed on the hoof, a very small proportion of the hogs turned off the farms each year are sold dressed. Yet with many farmers, particularly those who have only a small number to dispose of, it is always a question as to which is the better way to sell hogs, dressed or alive. No individual experience can be taken as a criterion, yet here is a record of what one Michigan farmer did in the way of experiment. He had two lots of hogs to sell. One litter of seven weighed a total of 1605 lbs. alive, and dressed 1,335 lbs., which was three pounds over a one-sixth shrinkage; one litter of five weighed 1540 lbs. and dressed 1320 lbs., losing exactly one-seventh, they being very fat. The sow weighed 517 lbs. and dressed 425, dressing away about 18 lbs. to the 100 lbs. He was offered $3.80 per 100 lbs. live weight, for all the hogs, and $3 for the sow. He finally sold the seven hogs, dressed, at $5 per 100 lbs., the second lot of five at $4.75, and the sow at $4.25. He decided that by dressing the hogs before selling, he gained about $12.50, aside from lard and trimmings. The experience here noted would not necessarily hold good anywhere and any time. Methods employed in packing hogs have been brought down to such a fine point, however, with practically every portion utilized, that unless a farmer has a well-defined idea where he can advantageously sell his dressed pork, it would not pay, as a general thing, to butcher any considerable number of hogs, with a view of thus disposing of them.

AN EASILY FILLED PIG TROUGH.

To get swill into a pig trough is no easy matter if the hogs cannot be kept out until it is filled. The arrangement shown in Fig. 25 will be found of much value and a great convenience. Before pouring in the swill, the front end of the pen, in the form of a swinging door suspended from the top, is placed in the position shown at b. The trough is filled and the door allowed to assume the position shown at a.