The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1883-09-21
How To Make Cheap Pork

Thousands of farmers fail to make any
money from hogs because they UNDER
AXE to make pork their leading product
when their farms are not suited to corn
growing, for cheap corr is DIE basis Of
cheap pork. Others fail because they
do not recognize the TACT that the hog is
. grazing animal, and keep their hogs
on an exclusively corn diet, by which
means they not only add largely to the
cost of keeping, but, also prevent a
healthy development and incur much
greater risk of loss by disease. A hog
That has been four months on clover and
the first OF September weighs 200 pounds
will be likely in Two months feeding to
be heavier than one which is $50 pounds
at the same date, if the latter has been
fed corn through the summer, The length
OF time in which any animal can be
proftably fed to its full capacity on corn
is limited, and if We expect q rapid gain
and profitable development in our hogs
when we fatten them, they must BE-
prepared for it by being previously kept
on a diet which will develop bone and
muscle rather than fat, and which also
will give that healthy condition Of
stomach and bowels SO essential to pro-
ftable pork making. Greenwood during
the summer gives the best possible
condition of system, and | have often
known marvellous gains when hogs We're
fed what corn they would eat after a
this season put up a lot of hogs for feed
ing, and made q gain OF over four pounds
each per day for 40 days. These hogs
averaged 100 pounds when feeding on
corn was begun.
The longer hogs can be kept on green
food the better condition they will be in
to fatten, and the less corn it will take
to fatten them. / would recon-
mend therefore on every farm,
where hogs were the leading interest,
that a field oil rye be sown for early
Spring pasture. More than month can
be gained in this way, for the rye comes
on very early while clover is slow to
start, and should not be turned on until
in blossom. l have known hogs that
were coughing and making no gain at all
from the cor fed them, to become
thrifty and ali signs of disease disappear
ture. A second point l would make is
this: To make cheap pork you must
feed early. 1t will as q rule take double
the food to make a pound of pork in
December that it will in September, and
unless sure of an advance in price there
is little profit in feeding more than two
months. Begin feeding cut-up corn as
500 as it is fit for roasting ears.
AT this stage of growth the stalk is
sweet and palatable, and the husk and
cob are sweet tender and nutritious, and
the hog will eat the larger parto of it, and
[ believe that it is worth more for feed
than the ear alone will be when fully
matured. Resides, this gives a gradual
change from clover to corn, and. by the
| time the corn is so dry that the hogs re-
fuse to stalk, they are prepared for g
full corn diet. Some bulky food is of adj
vantage during the entire period of fat
tening, and I have found nothing SO
cheap as pumpkins, or better; a little
pains will be necessary to teach hogs to
eatsthem, but if for a fewdays pumpkins
are fed instead of corn ono a day
the animals soon acquire q taste
for them, and will eat them readily.
Rural New Yorker. 4.