The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1884-04-17
Stone Coal For Swine.

Hogs that are kept in close quarters,
and fed about what they will eat of
corn, will show craving for other
articles of food. They win eat gravel,
clay, broken bricks, hard coal, soft
coal, charcoal, cinders, ashes, hen
manure, etc.
Because hogs confined to corn diet
will eat so readily of such articles as
are above named, that close observer,
L. N. Bonham, thinks many men arc
led to conclude there is great feeding
value in such extras, or that they are
good for hogs That kind of reason
ing has never been entirely satisfactory
to another large class of observing men.
Simply because hogs eat such things
greedily, after confinement in small
inclosure, kept wholly on liberal diet
of corn, one may as naturally argue
that corn alone does not meet the wants
of the nature of the hog.
Few farmers would claim that gravel,
or coal, or cinders have feeding value,
or that the pig could thrive on them,
even though he had access to coal
mine, or gravel-pit, or brick yard.
That corn alone does not meet all the
wants of nature is not questioned by
the best writers on animal feeding. It
does not contain sufficient proportion
of albuminoids to make a perfect diet.
We need to add to a corn diet a small
amount of heterogeneous food, or that
rich in albuminoids, such as oil cake,
meal or pea-meal. Skim milk, too, is
rich in true albuminoids, and when
added to corn ration, makes what APP
proximates to complete feed, one
which viii digest promptly, and of
which there viii be the smallest per
cent. of waste and the largest per cent.
of assimilation.
An albumoid ratio of II is about the
perfect diet for the pig. Corn has aratio
of 1:9. How can this be improved or
made to approximate III? Not by feed
ing cinders, coal and brickbats, which
no doubt contain a trace of albumen,
but by the addition of nearly pound
of milk for every pound of corn, which
will give the perfect ratio, III. The
few pigs on the board floor, which
get the milk and scraps from the kitchen
along with moderate corn-feeding tell
the story of successful assimilation of
feed. Their sleek pelts and rapid growth
tell that the diet suits them, and they
are assinnilating the maximum per cent.
of it, and making pork most rapidly.
Let US remember that these pigs do not
get any coal, cinders, gravel and the
like, nor do they root great holes in the
earth for that invisible something which
the high corn feeder says is necessary
for the pig. The pig goes quarrying
for roots, worms, larvae and the like,
to make up the deficiency of his feed ra-
ton. The corn diet alone does not meet
tho wants of nature.
Another thing should here be noticed.
Corn is so rich in starch that animals
fed long on it alone become constipa-
ted. And every successful feeder OF
handler of animals knows that the
keeping of the bowels regular is of first
importance. The corrective is not nec-
essarily physic. That may best be
found in simple addition to the feed
of something not so rich in starch. Oil
cake as corrective and condiment ID
feed, will prove most valuable, and
meet the wants of the animal usually
Bran, too, fed with corn will correct the
constipating tendency, and will help tc
more complete digestion of the corn,
Hence, oil meal and bran are most
profitable articles of Diet olnaan',
Rural World.