Nebraska advertiser., 1860-09-27
AGRICULTURAL.
From the American AgriculfuristG.
Hints on Fattenfng Pork.

1t is usual with many farmers TO put
this off until cold weather sets in. The
pigs run in the woods, the prairie, or the
road, picking up a scanty living, and in
November come to the pens lean and
hungry, when they ought TO be fattened.
In our practice we keep rigs in the sty
the year round. We find them quite too
valuable co laborers in the manufacture
of manure to allow them to waste "their
sweetness on the desert air." A pig, in
the Eastern States is worth five dollars
alone, if you will give him the material
to work with, and plenty of food. But
possibly it may pay for little time in
the Summer, TO keep the sow and pigs
IN clover patch where grass is more
plenty than corn upon farm. If this be
done, all of them intended for the butch
er by Christmas, should be shut up i'm
medlately, and be fed with all they can
eat. A squealing pig is worse for the
owners pocket than for his ears. 1t is
much easier to make pork in September,
and October than in December and jan
uary. No extra amount of food is vast
ed in keeping up the animal heat. 1t
all goes to fat aDd muscle. Variety of
food is matter of much Importance in
fattenmg swine. At this season a great
er variety is easily commanded. The
garden, if it is good one, yields great
many refuse articles, squashes, beets,
carrots, apples, melons, tomatoes, and
corn, which VIII find a good market in
the sty. One of the best articles Of food
for them is sweet corn, cut up by The
roots and fed whole. They are very fond
ef It, and it makes them thrive very fast.
A half acre near the sty may be profita-
tlB cultivated every year expressly for
this purpose. i this benot On hand. corr
from the field may be fed in the same
way once a day. But swine need some
thing more than green stuff however
to make them fatten.
The cooking Of food is nu ch more &C.
than is generally supposed, es-
pecially upon the farm, where fuel costs
only the labor for procuring it. We think
about one third of the value of all the
grains usually fed to swine, is saved by
cooking. A boiler or box for steaming is
in every well arranged
swill house. In this the meat may be
cooked and thoroughly mixed with the
roots and other vegetables The meal
absorbs large quantities of water, is
more highly relished by the pigs, and is
more perfectly digested. Numerous ex-
periments fully prove the economy of
cooking the food under ordinary circum-
stances. Some claim that they can make |
pork for less than three cents pound in
this way. A DAIRY farmer of this State
made one year 1927 pounds of pork
The feed with which he did it, was 4, 4,127
pounds of corn and oat meal at $l so
hundred, 460 pounds of shorts at seventy
five cents, l47 bushels of potatoes at Is |
cents, all of which we're cooked, and half
an acre Of green peas worth say SIS
making the total cost of feed $l03 95,
or not quite two and half cents per
pound for the pork. The valhe of the
whey and sour milk was not reckoned.
This, and the labor of feeding, with the
fuel for cooking, are very properly bal
anced against the the manure they made.
There can be no doubt that cooking the
food pays. well.
A dry, warm place for sleeping is an
other important item in keeping swine
thrifty. They should have a good sty,
with roof and board floor, and plenty of
straw SO that they can keep themselves
clean. With these conditions pork can
be made very fast, and the stye will be
found to pay as well as any part of the
farm arrangements.