Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-07-27
HOW SHALL PORK BE MADE.

HOW SHALL PORK BE MADE.
The high price of pork at the present
time is due, doubtless, to the relation
pork sustains to the corn market and
also to a scarcity of hogs. The immense
losses by hog cholera so alarmed the
farmers that they reduced their stock
OF hogs in many cases, and in others
went entirely out of the business
Among thoughtful farmers and packers
there has been growing tendency to
attribute this breaking down of the
constitution in swine to overlooking on
strong foods and too early breeding and
maturity.
The Westerra Ploacmaqa put the case
as follows:
"What is required and demanded
both at home and abroad is the long
bodied hog, which affords a deep
shoulder, lean ham and sides upon which
meat instead of fat is the rule. There
has been a growing disposition to stop
the practice of over-feeding hogs, and
so generally has this demand become
for good lean pork that, notwithstand-
ing the universal practice to feed to the
utmost capacity, breeders are now
changing their views, and sending to
market pigs that will guarantee good
paying block qualities. 1t is very
reasonable to suppose that an animal
overloaded with great masses of abso-
lutte fat and grease cannot be as healthy
as the one which, while sufficiently fed,
is not burdened with mass that is only
profitable to the lard manufacturer.
Foreign dealers IN American pork do
not hesitate to assert that the stock of
this country is overfed, and it is to these
exporters that the American breeders
are indebted for the change that can
not but result to the benefit of the
feeder, the dealer and the consumers"
This is undoubtedly true, and should
early receive the attention of farmers.
The reform has all the more force from
the fact that it lies in the direction of
profit. The old way of clovering hogs
had in it health and economy. The pigs
were dropped in May, and both sows
and pigs ran on the clover field with
but little else till late in the fall, when
the sows are fattened and the pigs win
tered. The common mistake at this
point is to allow the pigs to run with
sows while the latter are fed heavily on
corn for fattening. The pigs should
simply be fed enough for thrifty
growth. On the first winter largely
depends the profit in the animal,
whether for breeding or for pork. The
food should be nutritious but not
heavy. Oats or corn meal and wheat
bran with a daily ration of roots and
comfortable quarters are in the right
direction.
The addition of milk and house s1ops
are desirable if at hand. Fed and
managed in this way the animal makes
steady and constant growth, and comes
to maturity full of vigor; as breeder
she produces full litters of thrifty pigs,
or as porker she goes to the block
large and well rounded. When this
practice shall become universal, then
we may expect uniform success in swine
management.
A few farmers have revised the pro-
cess and seemed to succeed for a while.
They crowded their stock to the utmost,
made wonderful gains and took many
prizes in the showing; but sooner or
later they came to grief; their stock did
not do we'll in the hands of the pur-
chaser, and finally it became evident
that the home herd was diseased. An
industry so great and profitable as that
of swine farming should receive very
earnest attention at the hands of the
farmer.-Prof. S. Il. Knapp, IN IoaUa
Homestead.