Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1871-03-10

hogs are not apt to root where
there is plenty Of grass on the
ground. They should be allowed to
have all the grass they will eat as
early in the spring as possible, and
clover or tame hay is good for them
in winter. They are fond Of it.
Bran mashes and raw potatoes
should be fed to hogs on all open
days in winter. They are fond of
them. They are loosening.
Hogs that have run to grass all
summer can be shut upin q pen and
fed to advantage six weeks or two
months, but not longer. They will
become feverish and ravenous if con-
fined longer and deyour each other.
The hog is preferable that will fat
ten well when allowed his liberty.
The hog that, when well fed, will
take Just enough of exercise to keep
him healthy is the hog for the
farmer.
Summer and early autumn are the
seasons to make pork. Making it
in winter is like running boa,
against wind and tide, it requires
too much food to keep up the supply
of animal heat. If hogs have plen-
ty Of grass in summer, and about
half the corn they will eat, they will
fatten rapidly, and my belief is
that three pounds of pork can be
made from less grain in this way
than one pound can be in cold
weather with hog in a close pen.
The grass is cooling and loosening
and counteracts the feverish prop
critics of the corn; it also keeps the
hogs in healthy condition.
Hogs will never melt in summer,
however fat, if they can have ac-
cess to water or mud to lie in. The
hog will cover himself so that the
flies cannot bite him. Mud is very
bad for hogs in cool or cold weather;
it absorbs too much animal heat.
The hog is mammiferous ami
NAL, and milk of the right consist
encv, seems to be indispensable to
the proper rearing of young pigs.
1t is the first nourishment that Ma
ture provides for them. Pigs, to
be properly raised, should be plen
tifully supplied with milk and light
feed until three or four months old.
a SOW may be fed like any other
store hog up to within three weeks
OF her time to litter, when the hog
raiser should begin to make prepare
ton for the ingress of the pigs into
the world. A SOW may be allowed
to run on the ground and have plen-
ty Of exercise, except when shut W
to litter. She should be supplied
with fresh dirt daily while confined
The pigs will eat it and it will keep
them from securing.
\ SOW should be we'll fed with
loosening slop made Of the offal from
wheat or rye, and milk or milk and
water for three weeks before her
time to litter. This kind of fec
will loosen the SOW, soften her ilesl
and fill it with juice. How can i,
be expected to draw from six to ten
quarts of liquid in the nature Of
milk from the system Of a SOW ev-
cry twenty-four hours, without sup
plying that draught OF liquid from
the system with another liquid?
The milk of the SOW has to serve as
food and drink for her pigs for the
first three weeks CT their existence,
and if the SOW be fed corn, instead
Of supplying her system with liquie
it will absorb the juices Of her sys
TEN, make her milk thick and fever
ish, and give her pigs too much
food and not enough drink, and the
consequence is their blood becomes
thick, their skin becomes dry, and
they sicken and die with cough or
the thumps. p
All young animals are. wont to
make more motions than older ones.
This excessive activity seems to be
law of their nature; seems to be in
dispensably necessary to a proper
development, and it surely pro.
notes digestion. No man need be
uneasy about his pigs, when he sees
them run, and jump and squeal, with
a double curl in their tails.-John
Xaiyht, IN Western Stock JournoI.