The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1870-10-28
AGRICULTURAL & DOMESTIC.
Eaftening Hogs.


Is in the months of September, October
and November, and the worst in De.
cember, January and February. A GER
tain amount of food is necessary to keep
the animal warm when the thermome.
ter is at zero. All this is saved when
1t stands between thirty and sixty de.
grees. In addition to this, the absolute
loss of food by freezing to the spout
and trough, and the inevita BILE mixture
with snow and slush, is never less Tor
dinarily) than five per cent, not to say
anything about the trouble and cost
of continually thawing frozen swill,
and bringing it to the temperature that
1T will be most acceptable TO the uncom-
Portable and semi-torpid animal.
The eastern method is to commence
fattening by boiling potatoes, pump
kins, apples or other vegetables, and
mix little bran, shorts or provender
with the cooked vegetables when hot,
thus thoroughly cooking the meal. 1t
is then placed in tubs or watts, and al
lowed to slightly ferment, when it is
ready for use. The amount of meal is
gradually increased till near killing
time, when meal we'll cooked is given
alone.
The meal is composed of oats, buck
wheat and corn, or any coarse grain, or
of any two of them, generally finishing
with corn meal alone. Thus treated,
they fatten much faster than on dry
corn and at much less expense. 1t costs
more labor, but at season when it can
be well spared, and it is well recon-.
pensed.
The English system is still more di-
versified. They use all kinds of vege-
tables potatoes, turnips, carrots, beets,
peas, beans, barley and oats; The
grains steamed or ground the vegeta-
bles cooked and mixed with slop from
the house, dairy, distillery, brewery,
etc. Even grass and clover is cut and
mixed with the feed, and almost every
substance of light cost and any nutri-
ment is nicely prepared and finds a
ready market in the maw of the ON.
niverous hog.
A celebrated English breeder give the
following directions: give them vari.
ETY. of meal, such as wheat, maize, bar
ley, and whatever is most convenient
to mix together. Have it all wetted
with hot water, and sprinkle it with
salt. What is mixed one day is used
the next, thus giving sufficient time to
allow the food slightly to ferment, and
cool sufficiently to feed with. This is
our winter plan, but in summer we
mix all with cold water, and feed with
cold food. Between meals give them
whole maize, and mangold wurtzel or
swedes cut small, little coal and soil
occasionally, and allow them plenty of
clean water. When pigs are put up for
fattening we find nothing better to feed
them with than barley and maize meal,
mixed together into slops, water always
kept by them, and little mangold cut
for them occasionally. 1t is very bene.
fetal to wash and brush them as often
rs convenient. This is quickly done by
experienced hands, and will amply re-
pay the trouble, but throughout the
northwest, it is the practice to feed ear
corn in a dry state. 1t is not the best
economy, and yet corn is so easily pro-
duced, and it is so handy to feed, espe.
cially in cold weather, and when the
hogs have been properly summered,
and their teeth and health good, success
is so certain, that it will doubtless be a
long time before it will be abandoned.
If the corn was soaked, steamed,
or ground, it would give you better
return, and if mixed with cooked veg
tables, still better From the western
system of feeding, ten bushels of corn
will increase the weight of good hog
about hundred pounds, and sometimes
more. So the comparative value of
pork and corn can be 80 easily estimat-
ed. With the eastern system, it will
do much more than that. Pigs eat the
food much better when it is fresh.
The very common practice of leaving
aquantity of food before them constant
ly. so as to be sure they have enough,
is very wasteful, and very bad policy
so is irregular feeding. Strict regulari
ty as to times of feeding, quality and
quantity of feed, are very desirable
Twice feeding each day is better than
three times; but whatever the number
of times adopted, they should be every
day alike, and at about the same time
each day. Once giving too little-then
too much-sometimes emitting meal
then giving an extra one, or feeding al
irregular times-any of these practice:
will detract materially from the value
of the pork rel.-American iStocl
Journal.