The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1883-01-24
Buying Corn for Hogs.

NcdIc uShtu Wy " COrIcSpOuucuU, IL
1t will pay him to keep hogs upon large
scale, he having plenty Of pasture for
them to run on in summer, access to the
milk Of a neighboring creamery free Of
charge, but being under the necessity of
buying all his corn, the price Of corn
being there at the present time forty
cents. 1t will pay, we would say in
reply, an excellent profit to fat
ten hogs, even il all the food
that is used for that purpose must be
bought. The estimated value of corn
when converted into pork is as follows:
When pork is worth five cents per
pound, 1t gives fifty cents per bushel for
the corn fed; when pork is worth six
cents per pound gross, it gives sixty
cents per bushel for the corn fed, and so
on. We think that we can do better
than this, but this is the rule. Some
might not do so well, as much must nee
essarily depend upon a knowledge of the
business and intelligent general man.
agement. In this country we feed corn
as a general thing, and as fat-produc-
ing food, il is superior to any other one
thing. Our correspondent, evidently
lacking experience, naturally falls into
the too common error of supposing that
his entire dependence must be upon
corn, which is higher in price than some
other foods which will answer as well,
taking the lower price at which they
may be had into consideration.
In the summer time he has plenty Of
pasture. That is cheap, and furnishes
an excellent food for hogs. Every
swine breeder should have plenty Of
pasture. The milk from the creamery
spoken Of will be good as far as it goes.
Swine breeders will never lose anything
by feeding milk. But when we come to
corn, excellent rs it is, as a fat-pro-
ducing food, there are some objections
to it. 1t must not be forgotten that it
is q one.sided food. Its Office is to pro-
duce fat, and it will not furnish the
elements to produce bone and muscle
in the growing hog, or to repair the
waste of these in the fattening hog; and
we have not the slightest doubt what
ever that much of our hog cholera, So
called, is the result of this one-sided
development of feeding for fat alone-of
feeding corn week in and week out and
month in and month out. The health
of the hog, therefore, demands a change
or mixture of foods, to the end that it
may not fall to pieces in one part of the
system, while it is being built up in
another. Another objection 10 fattening
upon corn exclusively is tho cost. Is
there anything else that is cheaper and
that will at least partially take the place
of cornp is question which the intelli.
gent feeder should always be ash
ieeds lntengentiy, ne must seek for
something that is nitrogenous, even il
he have good supply of non-nitrogen'
Gus food, like corn and while doing
this, the question of comparative cos
will necessarily present itself. Differ
ent locations and the state of tn,
markets will have much to do with th
solution of this question.
In order to enable the reader to arriv
at something like correct conclusion
as TO the profit of substituting some
thing else for corn, or partially doing
so, it may be well to state the estimate
of the relative value of some OF tn,
foods as fat producers. A hundred
pounds of corn is intended to be equa
to hundred and three pounds 0
barley; hundred and seventeen pounds
of rye; = hundred and eighteen of oats
a hundred and twenty-five of buck.
wheat; hundred and nineteen o
linseed cake, and six hundred and sixty
five of mangolds. Now with such al
estimate feeder can sit down, and wit
the market reports before him, easil
decide which he can feed most profits
bly,. But there are still other thing
which are generally comparativel
cheap, and Which serve most exceller
purpose when fed to hogs in connectio
with corn. We refer to bran, middling
shorts and screenings. The most su,
cessful feeder will not neglect to col
slider such foods, and he will not despis
the still cheaper roots. lie will neve
lose sight of the fact either that the no.
will utilize anything that is at all eata
Bile, and will consequently not only Sc
that nothing about the premises of tina
character is wasted, but can afford h
purchase almost anything that is Offered
cheap.
The general proper management o
hogs will include comfortable quarter
and care not to be overcrowded. l
summer they should have plenty {
range. In winter their enclosures shoul
be such as to shield them from stor
9 and cold, for there is no use trying
I' make pork production profitable un
e this is done. If we are content to fe
g grain for the purpose of keeping up
~ , unnecessary waste of heat, we must
u satisfied TO see our profits vanish. {
Il. correspondent in this instance parti
u larly states that his piggery will
e. "frost proof and have every conv
ie ience." That is correct, but it will
~ no harm if we restate in this connect
I'd what we have several times SAID
g fore, that hog does not require b
g. temperature. They will get along
n. right in temperature of forty-ive
n grees, and we think better than II
lv higher temperature. Their feeding
- should be clean, for while the hog '
Iv eat food that is thrown into the init
y n of filth, if it can get no other, 1t pref
a. to be fed on clean floor, and 1t nc
~ not be stated that pork thus made Is
1t every way tter.-Westrrn RHrds.
i, --Twenty-six years ago, according
70 tho Pee Dee Herald, it rainod SO ma
~ that a pot eighteen inches deep v
filed and ran over between Sund
night and Monday morning, and
a stf NO Of perch was found hanging to
-. e 4 Il al nd do1uta