Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1868-08-26
Fatteninr Hogs,

4 correspondent of the Prarie Farmer
asks for Information on the subject of fatten-
ing hogs, and the annexed is a sensible re-
ply of the editor
Theoretically, there is great gain in grind
ing and cooking food; but practically, there
may be little or no gain. This will depend
on the circumstances of the individual farm
er. If grain is high, water grist mill is
near, or the farmer has a mill of his own the
roads are good, farm help is plenty, and fuel
is cheap, there will be great saving in
grinding and cooking corn to be fed to hogs.
But if on the other hand, grain is low, the
mill ten miles off, the road bad, labor scarce
| and fuel high, then the expense of preparing
the corn for the trough might be considera-
bly, greater than the value of the corn in the
ear. In many parts of the west one-forth
part of the grist is taken for toll here is a
| Loss of twenty-five per cent. on the. start. To
this we must add the cost of Smelling the
corn, drawing it to the mill and back and
the price of the labor needed in cooking and
| the worth of the fuel. These are no incon-
siderable items.
As an offset to these, however, we have an
| increased amout of pork, quicker fattened
| and. some say. of superior quality.
To enable farmers to form an opinion oil
the comparative value of prepared and un-
prepared corn for hogs, VIC give the results
obtained through experiments by Samuel III
Clay of Bourbon county, KY, sc One busbel
of dry corn made lbs. 10 or. of live pork
| one bushel of boiled corn made IA lbs or
| of pork one bushel of ground corn, boiled
made, in one instance, Is lbs. o., in
another nearly Is lbs. of pork. To get the
value of corn, estimate the pork at cents a
pound we have as the result of one bushel
Of dry corn, As cents worth of pork of one
| bushel of boiled corn, Is cents worth OF
| pork and of one bushel of ground corn, 136
| cents worth of pork. "
| The late Prof Mapes states as the result
| of experiments made at Camden, NJ, that it
requires 80 lbs. of raw corn tomake as much
pork as IL lbs. of cooked meal.
| With these results taken from good author
| tiles, any farmer can estimate for himself the
probable advantage to be derived from grind
ing and cooking food for hogs, in his partic-
ular situation. Little advantage can be de-
rived from consulting tables prepared in
Europe or the more eastern States, as there a
~o-y 4: fce-oat eeeeo of aGire e4ists Il anu
pork are high there, while labor is cheap
Perhaps the method employed by many
farmers in Kentucky, is on the whole the
best that can be pursued in the majority OF
instances in the west. There the practice is
to turn the hogs into an unharvested field
when they first commence to fatten them.
After the hogs have worked harvesting in
this manner for few weeks they are fed on
corn in the ear till they are tolerably we'll
fattened At this period they are fed on
cooked corn meal till they are in prime con-
dition for the market.
This method of fattening hogs has many
things to commend It, In the first place, it
is not well to shut hogs in small Enclosure
after having liberty to rove at large; the
change should be gradual one. The change
from the ungathered corn to that which is
! collected and huskcd, is made after the hog
has become too fat to conveniently wander
about the field. Lastly the finishing touch
is put on with boiled mush after the hogs
teeth have become impaired by Smelling corn,
as their stomachs may have been by digest
ing it.
Feeding ground cooked food to work cattle
and horses, has never met with much favor
and has few advocates.
| Authorities do not SO generally agree in
relation to the advantages of grinding and
cooking grain for other stock as they do in
the case OF hogs.