Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-03-22
A Real Rural story with a. Moral.

An agricultural friend sends us the follow
ing statement which he assures us is based
upon facts. We commend it to the careful
consideration of all who own or have charge
of swine
"A farmer bought of me some pigs of a
choice breed paid high price, and, after
keeping them a year or two and breeding
them, he came to me exclaiming: You re-
member that bought some of the - breed
of pigs of your
Yes, replied, and how do you like 'em 2
Like EN-! Why, I'm disguised with EN-
Can't get 'em up to 300 pounds at Is months,
and you said they would scale 600
Come and look at mine, said |, and he ac-
companied me to my pen.
Now, said he, excitedly, do you pretend
to say that the pigs you sold Inc are of this
breed?
L do, the same stock and breed
Why, you must take me to be an ignora-
mus. Come over and see them, and you'll
find 'em as mean, rawboned, scrawny lot of
hogs as you ever laid eyes on, and l shall ex-
pect you to refund my money
went with him and found his hogs in De-
cember, in a pen where the mud was eighteen
inches deep, into which their feed corn in
the ear was thrown; and the only shelter
they had as a sleeping apartment, was "A few
poles laid across one end of the enclosure.
over which few boards We're laid horizontal
ly, so that the rains kept the swine drenched
in wet weather Not particle of straw was
| given them as n bed, and turned away, won
dering which had the most common sense,
| the hogs or their owner.
'Neighbor, said l, you ought to be indict-
ed for cruelty to animals Can it be possible
that you don't know any better than to treat
| your pigs in this way? In the first place
tbpN- half etopyal ho1 fI,o Ca
to them is lost in the mud, and the other half
is eaten with so much filth that it barely keeps
| life within them. You should lay n plank
floor over the entire enclosure; then you
should build warm sleeping apartment, with
| IA shingle roof, and then feed your hogs on
cooked food mostly, but never ON corn in the
ear. Corn meal may do, but it pays well to
cook it. Get furnace kettle that holds from
forty to sixty gallons, set it in bricks and
mortar in an clubhouse where there is a chin.
ney, or build one if you have none, and then
mix Indian meal with potatoes, carrots, pars-
nips or beets, and cook all together giving
the feed warm as often ms you can convenient
ly-all they will eat to those who are fatten-
ing (the others keep separate and, aftel
| following my advice for Il season. come to lie
and report the result
did not happen to see this man till the
next fall, at the State fair where / found him
with group of farmers admiring some fine
hogs that they said had taken the first pre-.
MUM and they We're fine, weighing oven
600 pounds each Whose are theyl' 1 as.
ed. They are mine, from stock l bought OF
you, replied my neghbor adding 1 did as
you directed, and | am satisfied now that the
pigs you sold me We're the pure breed, just as
you represented
The moral of this result is, that it pays
well to take care of all animals, to provide
comfortable quarters for them, to give them
plenty of straw for their beds, and to feed
them in II rational way. - Ultra Observer.