Page:Tree Crops; A Permanent Agriculture (1929).pdf/124

 With a proper selection of varieties, this season might be extended.

In 1927 Mr. Hume, who is an ex-professor in horticulture, reported that there was little change in the situation.

I find a very general belief in the Cotton Belt that one "everbearing" mulberry tree is enough to support one pig (presumably a spring pig) during the fruiting season of two months or more. Professor J. C. C. Price. Horticulturist, Agricultural and Mechanical College, Mississippi, says, "The everbearing varieties will continue to bear from early May to late July, a period of nearly three months. I believe that a single tree would support two hogs weighing 100 pounds each and keep them in a thrifty condition for the time that they are producing fruit. They could be planted about 35 trees to the acre."

Mr. F. A. Cochran, breeder of Berkshire swine at Derita, North Carolina, said, "I only have a few trees, but they are large ones, 100 feet apart. . . . I would not take $25 per tree for the old trees. I have three hogs to the tree. They are doing fine, in good flesh. . . . I have not weighed any hogs that were fed on mulberrics, but estimate that they gained one pound and over per day. My hogs have a feed of two small ears of corn twice a day."

Mr. James C. Moore, farmer of Auburn, Alabama, writes, "I never weighed my pigs at the beginning and close of the mulberry season, but think I can safely say that a pig weighing 100 pounds at the start would weigh 200 pounds at the close. . . . Three-fourths to the mulberries is safe calculation of the gain. I have had the patch about 18 years bearing. I planted my trees just 32 feet apart, and now the branches are meeting, and I have about 40 trees. I have carried 30 head of hogs through from May 1 to August 1, with no food but the gleanings of the barn and what slops came from the kitchen of a small family."