Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1846-10-16
From the North Carolina Farmer.
ON THE MANAGEMENT OF
HOGS,

mr.. LemGy: Ii mas often been mat
ter of great establishment 10 me that so lit
tie attention is paid TO raising so valuable
an animal as the HOG, in North Carolina.
Here we ought to be pork sellers AND NOT
buyers but instead of this, thousands of
dollars are annually distracted from the
pockets of even our farmers for foreign
pork This is a killing business, and it is
disgrace to the State. One reason of
this is, that no provision is made for rails
ing swine beyond the cultivation of few
extra corn field peas and sweet potatoes,
save the scanty allowance Of corn which is
occasionally thrown to them on the ground;
and many for 9 months in the year don't
even get this with them it is I" root pig or
die" This is absolutely scandalous-il is
unmercfnl and sinful.
As it will not do to undertake to raise
cheap pork on corn, peas and potatoes a.
lone, or, as some do, on nothing, would
recommend the following method:
1. Have small clover lots expressly for
the hogs. Cut and feed it to them land
you may commence early in the SPRING.
| or turn them on the clover an hour or two
every day.
2. Have lot of early corn drilled, and
cut and feed ii to them, stalks, and all, from
the time it begins to silk.
3. Raise an acre of CoNards; as soon as
they will bear cropping, pull off the un-
der leaves, and pack them in barrels in the
following manner: Putdown layer of the
leaves three inches thick, pressed by the
hand; then bruise them and pack them with
a pesile, and continue these layers till the
barrel is full, sprinkling over each layer
small handful of salt and as much meal or
bran as you can spare. Let it stand two
or three days; and no better food can be
given your hogs.
4. Raise plenty OF apples, sweet and
sour. Let the lanes and corners of the
fences all over the plantation be set with
trees. While these last, the hogs will fat
ten.
s. Have field of Rye teady to turn
them upon, TO make a little pastry for their
apple pies.
E. Anj be prepared to give them course
Of artichohes and sweet potatoes after the
apples and rye are gone.
7. Raise bee,s and carrots, and turnips
and pumpkins, to help out your corn IN
winter.
Let this be done; and look TO keeping
them with frequent changes Of bedding
rubbing their legs occasionally with corn
cob; giving them plenty of charcoal dust;
feeding them at regular hours; and they
wilb healthy, prolific, thrifty and proita-
bic. Grain will be saved and the pork
will he whittier and sweeter. An expert
enced farmer says:
"When my sows are pregnant. they are
kept apart from other hogs; at the birth of the
young pigs, they are removed for few hours
from the dam, as they are in danger of being
injured by her motions. She is fed juditlous-
ly for the first five days, af.er which she is al
lowed full quantum of food three times each
day, but never oyerfed. Her troughs are
cleaned after each meal, and her pen daily, af-
ter which is Uttered with fine broken straw.
The pigs are daily accustomed to feed on
milk mixed with bran, and at the age of two
months are weaned. They are always keptin
confinement, converting rubbish into manure.
My second brood Of pigs are sent to New Y orl<
market, and are sold TO the packets as roas-
tiers.
1.-The stock hogs are wintered chiefly on
sugar beets and carrots, occasionally boiled
potatoes, and frequently charcoal dust, which
keep them in perfect health their legs are
often rubbed witch corn cob, 10 open the is
sues and use the blood to circulate freely,
otherwise staggers may ensue. | fa:ed two
hogs year before last entirely on sweet and
sour apples, fed alternately. For three or four
months they received no other food, except oc-
casionalv charcoal; water even was denied
them. They weighed, when killed, two hum
dred and fifty pounds each the whole how
was covered with very thick layer of fat,
perfectly white and firm; the skin was thin,
and the pork pronounced by connofsseurs ex-
ceedingly fine and sweet; the hams were not
inferior TO Westphalia.
Last year 1915, on the first Of October,
confined sixteen hogs in an enclosure about
sixty feet square, in one corner of which
placed all my pamic, after having extracted
the cider, and permitted the hogs three times
each day to partake Of it one hour, in which
time they completely filled themselves to re-
pletion. They were allowed no other food
during October and November; the first week
in December they were killed, and fatter an
imals never saw. They we've sold in New
York for two cents per pound above the maE
ket price"