The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1878-05-02
\, UTHERN HOME AND FARM.
plain Talk .b0ut the Hog,

htllhb'D Az 'Hhil p'lEni ~
The great question OF the value Of corn
M food for swine has never been and can
not be actually demonstrated. When
we sell our corn on the market we count
the dollars and cents, but when we feed
it 10 hogs, it can only be approximately
estimated, How many pounds OF pork
will a bushel Of corn make ? IL what no
man yet has found out, All experiments
in feeding have only proven what certain
hogs, under certain conditions, have
made to the bushcl Of corn. Now,
whether this grain has been five or
twenty pounds to the bushel, establishes
this and no more that in certain con
dition4 90 many pounds Of pork have
been made from n hushel Of corn.
There are 20 many things 10 be taken
into account -- ~ age. breeding, the
season Of the year, mortality, wear and
tear OF the dam, etc, that anything like
a general average il almost entirely out
Of the question. It anything IL well
established in feeding, il is that the
young Of swine ~ well rs Of all other
animals will make very much better gain
from the food consumed than elder ami
mails. have myself sold more than one
carload OF pigs, at about ten months old,
whose average gain had been about one
pound per day--say three hundred
pounds mt ten months, No ore can
believe that another three hundred
pounds could have been added to these
pigs in anything like the same time or
Tor the quantity OF food consumed. ]
do not claim any %cxtraVagant gain for
these pigs, and can readily believe that
others have done better Especially the
man from Mankato). | have fed corn
TO hogs that %abundantly satisfied me
and have also fed them when | did not
get pay tor throwing the C0r on the
feeding floor. When TO buy and when
~ oelL when to give and when to with
hold, is beyond the ken Of mortal man
viii it pay to trlnd and cook food for
our hogs? ] have experimental Il little
on this subject, and all are welcome to
my deductions, but ! neither ask nor
expect that the world shall be turned
upside down at my doing so, | think it
viii pay to make swill Cruel or soup for
Bows giving milk Just ~ it viii! for the
dai'yman to feed his cows on sOit green
food to encourage the flow Of milk, to
make such food Tor sOw5. | know Of no
better way than to grind or cook, either
with steam or over an open fire.
! think II will also pay to prepare the
drink for pigs in the same manner,
especially where large numbers are raised
and better drink can not be obtained.
All know that natures elemcnt-milk
can not be equaIled, even in the labor
aiory Of the chemist, and when milk can
not be DISQUALIFICATION quantity, we
should do the next best thing, make
their drink paIatabIe, AZ near blood.heat
~ poSsibIe my way TO get large guam
II les OF drink into their stOmachs. ]
have used two parts Of corn and one part
OF oats, ground together, and added to
this an equal bulk Of wheat middlings.
This has proven satisfactory to the taste
OF the pig, and | never saw anything but
good effects from its use. 1t is a well
established law in the physiology of diges
tion that it IL not the quantity but the
quality of the food digested. II it il the
last leather that breaks the camcis
back, 70 it is the extra grain of corr that
pays. 1t takes a certain amount of food
10 supply the natural waste OF the sys
TEN, and all above this quantity is stored
up in the form Of fat and muscles.
Corn soaked in cold water for from
t~wcntyN'Our to iortyNeight hour, il rem
drrcd very much more direstibIc in the
stomach of the pig than when not 20
treated. Always keep in mind that the
greater quantity eaten and digcslsd is
tn" true secret of success in fattening
animals.
A 'cw words as to the Importance of
iIIids in the system, TO aid assimilation.
All animals, from man down, that arc ia
II state of health, consume n large quar-
tiLy of fluids, and take on flesh in the
mme proportion. 1t is not the nourish-
ment contained in The lager beer of our
Teltonic friends that gives them their
harrel shaped abdomens. The same
quantity of water pure and uncombined
with the same amouutof nutriment con
mmed would produce the same result.
show me a fat man, woman or child, or
any other animal, and if net proven great
drinkers, they are the exceptions and
not the rule.
the chemist will tell lis that il takes
no many pounds of green grass to be
equal in nourish ment to n given ouan.
tity of dry nay,
Buteveryone knows that grass is more
"hankered after" and more readily
assimilated and taken up by the digestive
organs, more especially in animals that
do not chew tho cud. There are lust
three things that give tho hog it's COM
mercial importance. First, their flesh
indefinite time, as the flesh of no either
domestic animal can be. Secondly their