The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1878-04-25

plain TsIk About the nor.

i ~O-~O
livered by DR.. Ezra Stetson, of Nepon-
sett, H., at the recent Agricultural in
stitute, at Champaign, H.:
The great question of the value of corn
as 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 to hogs, it can only be approximately
estimated. How many pounds of pork
will bushel of corn make is what no
man yet has found out. All experiments
in feeding have only proven what certain
hogs, under certain conditions. have
made to the bushel of corn. Now,
whether this grain has been five or
twenty pounds to the bushel, establishes
this and no more-that in certain con-
ditions so many pounds of pork have
been made from bushel of corn.
There are SO many things to be taken
into account as age. breeding, the
season of the year, mortality, wear and
tear of the dam, etc., that anything like
a general average is almost entirely out
of the question. If anything is well
established in feeding, it is that the
young of swine as well as of all other
animals will make very much better gain
from the food consumed than elder ami
mails. I have myself sold more than one
carload ct pigs, at about ten months old,
whose average gain had been about one
pound per day-say three hundred
pounds at ten months. No one can
believe that another three hundred
pounds could have been added to these
pigs in anything like the same time or
for the quantity OF food consumed. 1
DO not claim any exJravagant gain for
these pigs, and Can readily believe that
others have done better Especially the
man rom MankatO). I have fed corn
to hogs; that abundantly satisfied me !;
and have also fed them when I did not
get pay for throwing the corn on the
feeding floor. When to buy and when
| to sell, when to give and when to withS
hold, is beyond the ken of mortal man.
Will 1t pay to rInd and cook food for
our hogs have experimental little
on this subject, and all are welcome to
my deductions, but I neither ask nor
expect that the world shall be turned
upside down at my doing So think it
will pay to make swill Cruel or soup for
sows giving milk just as it vii! for the
dairyman to feed his cows on soft green
food to encourage the flow of milk, to
make such food Tor soWs. l know of no
better way than to grind or cook, either
with steam or over an open fire.
think it will also pay to prepare the
| drink tor pigs in the same manner,
especially where large numbers areraised
and better drink can not be obtained.
All know that natures element-miIk
can not be equalled, even in the labor
atery OF the chemist, and when milk can
not be obtained in, Sufficient quantity, we
should do the next best thing. make
their drink palatable, as near blood-heat
as posslble=-any way to get large guam
titles of drink into their stomachs. I
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 L never saw anything but
good effects from its use. 1t is q we'll
established law in the physiology of diges-
ton that 1T Is not the quantity but the
quality of the food digested. If it is the
last feather that breaks the cancels
Back, so it is the extra grain of corn that
pays. 1t takes a certain amount of food
to supply the natural waste of the sys
TEN, and ali above this quantity is stored
up in the form of fat and muscles.
Corn soaked in cold water for from
twenty>tOur to fOrtyNeight hours is rem
dered very much more digestible in the
stomach OF the pig than when not so
treated. Always keep in mind that the
greater quantity eaten and digested Is
the true secret Of success in fattening
animals.
A few words as to the Importance OF
fluids in the system, to aid assimilation.
All animals, from man down, that are in
state of health, consume a large guam.
tity of fluids, and take on flesh in the
same proportion. 1t is not the nOurish.
ment contained in the lager beer of OuI
Teutonic friends that gives them theil
barrel-shaped abdomens. The same
quantity of water pure and uncembiDeC
, with the same amount OF nutTiment con
sumed would produce the same result
Show me fat man, woman or child, OF
any other animal, and if net proven greaf
drinkers, they are the exceptions anC
rot the rule.
The chemist will tell US that it take
so many pounds of green grass to bt
equal in nourish ment to q given guam
J tity of dry hay,
Buteveryone knows that grass is NOR,
"hankered after" and more readily
: assimilated and taken up by the digestiv,
I organs, more especially in animals tina
, do not chew the cud. There are jus
1 three things that give the hog its com
mercial Importance. First, their hesl
can be preserved for use and kept for al
indefinite time, as the flesh of no othe
q domestic animal can be. Secondly, thei
a extraordinary fecundity-- six, twelve
q eighteen, twenty~ieur or even more pig
, at single litter. a SOW would haTdl,
: die of old age before she might beeom
D | the common ancestor of more hogs thai
g are now to be counted in the Unitet
: States. | am getting up a swine herr
e book. Please take notice, and govefl
; yourselves accordingly.
g The third ard most important charac
I, teristic OF the hog is that he is a hog
Il ever ready to assimiiate any article 3
= food that comes in his reach In plat
\ English, the hog has a stomach made fS
5 digestion, and furthermore, that stemad
a never gets out o order. All that an
n hog wants is plenty to eat, and hi
e neighbors must look out for themselves
c Who ever heard of hog having dyspeI
e STA, the stOmach-ache or the thOusan
T and one ills than his less favored name
: sake endures? Yea, verify, any hog wit
s a full stomach is at peace with himse
q and all the rest of the world.
2 order ana Energy Ia Farming
y No man stands in greater need of bot
order and energy than the farmer. WheI
= these remarkable powers come from ma
- be in erred from the following remark
I of DR.. Tyudall:
The order and energy of the universe
hold to be inherent, snd not impose
from withOut--the expression of fixe
It law, and not of arbitrary will exercise
il by what Carlyle would call the Almight