cost me five cents per foot, or $100 for the whole. The work
was done by my own men.

CHAPTER L

THE HEADMAN GENERALIZES

Jackson's prophecy came true. The old lady died, and before the ground
was fairly settled around her the improvident son accepted a cash offer
of $75 per acre for his homestead, and the farm was added to mine. This
was in November. I at once spent $640 for 2-1/2 miles of fencing to
enclose it in one field, charging the farm account with $12,640 for the
land and fence.

This transaction was a bargain, from my point of view; and it was a good
sale, from the standpoint of the other man, for he put $12,000 away at
five per cent interest, and felt that he need never do a stroke of work
again. A lazy man is easily satisfied.

In December I sold 283 hogs. It was a choice lot, as much alike as peas
in a pod, and gave an average weight of 276 pounds; but the market was
exceedingly low. I received the highest quotation for the month, $3.60
per hundred, and the lot netted $2702.

It seems hard luck to be obliged to sell fine swine at such a price, and
a good many farmers would hold their stock in the hope of a rise; but I
do not think this prudent. When a pig is 250 days old, if he has been
pushed, he has reached his greatest profit-growth; and he should be
sold, even though the market be low. If one could be certain that within
a reasonable time, say thirty days, there would be a marked advance, it
might do to hold; but no one can be sure of this, and it doesn't usually
pay to wait. Market the product when at its best, is the rule at Four
Oaks. The young hog is undoubtedly at his best from eight to nine months
old. He has made a maximum growth on minimum feed, and from that time on
he will eat more and give smaller proportionate returns. There is
danger, too, that he will grow stale; for he has been subjected to a
forcing system which contemplated a definite time limit and which cannot
extend much beyond that limit without risks. Force your swine not longer
than nine months and sell for what you can get, and you will make more
money in the long run than by trying to catch a high market. I sold in
December something more than four hundred cockerels, which brought $215.
The apples from the old trees were good that year, but not so abundant
as the year before, and they brought $337,--$2.25 per tree. The hens
laid few eggs in October and November, though they resumed work in
December; but the pulle