Bradford opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1874-1881, 1877-05-26
FARM, GARDEN AND HOUSEHOLD.
How 10 Have Healthy Hogs.


In the first place, begin swine raising
by procuring good, well-breeding ami
mails of sound health and great constitu-
ional vigor, and then endeavor to main-
tain all that vigor. To do this avoid the
pernicious practice of breeding "in-and-
in, using none but thoroughbred males,
even if your females are mongrel or grade
animals, and do not crowd your sows into
having two or three litters of pigs an
nual!y. A young SOW, under two years
old, ought never to have more than one
litter of pigs year. After that age she
may, for general feeding purposes, be
bred to farrow in spring and autumn,
but her progeny in this last case will not
be as good for breeding purposes as if
bred to farrow only in April or May.
When sows are in pig, let them be pro-
vided for in manner to keep them in
good thriving order, but do not allow
them to get too fat. Give them the
range of n good roomy pasture, with
plenty of blue grass or clover and shell
ter, either natural or artificial, to which
they may have ready access whenever
they desire it. Let them have plenty O.
pure, clean water, both for drinking and
bathing. Warm, dry, clean bedding is
of course essential in the cold weather;
and never permit them to make bed in
old rotten straw or manure of any kind,
as such foul bedding doubtless promotes
mango, cough, and perhaps many other
diseases. In winter let the want of grass
and other vegetable diet be made up, as
far as practicable, by liberal allowances of
cabbage leaves, boiled potatoes or turnips.
or, better yet, generous supply of arti-
chokes. Give them, twice week,
mixture of salt, wood ashes, sulphur and
charcoal. A SOW in breeding must not
have as much corn, or fat-producing
food, as if it were the object to fat her,
but more food containing the phosphates,
or bone-producing food. This demand
of nature is evinced by the greedy man
ner in which sows in such conditions
will devour old bones.-G. W. Whitcsidc
in Rural World.
Value Of Cattle Foods.
There is an enormous difference in the
values of the cattle foods used in this
country, both for fattening and for labor
sustentation. The difference is mainly
due to the varying amounts of water and
nitrogenous substances they contain.
Take the difference in the manurial value
for illustration, between two kinds of oil
producing seeds, Inseed and cotton seed,
after the expression of the oil. The
worth of the manure from ton of lin
seed cake is about $17.50 in the New
England markets; that from ton of cot
ton seed cake is worth nearly $24. This
value is based upon it's use when fed to
fattening animals. If fed to working
oxen and mich cows, it falls to about
half this value The amount of labor
and milk obtained will be in proportion
to the manurial value of the experiment.
All foods that hold large amount of
water, like roots, potatoes, apples, etc,
have comparatively small value as fat
tening or working foods. The percentage
of nitrogenous and phosphate substan-
ces is so small that large quantities must
be consumed to produce desirable re-
suits. The percentage of water in sew
eral of our most ordinary foods is as fol-
lows:
Per cent.
Meadow and clover hay. .14.3 to 16
Straw 3 to 16