The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1884-01-17
Feeding Pigs for Fattening.

An error quite prevalent among farm
ers and others in feeding and fattening
pigs, which often leads to disappointing
results, is the notion that the pig thrives
best and fattens fastest upon the most
concentrated food and does not require
bulk in its food to promote health. All
are aware that corn, or corn meal alone,
with water, is not a wholesome ration
for the OK or horse, but think that the
pig is SO differently constituted that
bulk in food is not essential. A greater
error could hardly be- conceived. In
the natural wild state the pig, as well as
the horse and OK, is accustomed to
bulky, less concentrated food, which
seems to have been forgotten, and he
is piled with concentrated food from
weaving age till slaughtered, except in
perhaps certain cases where economy
or parsimony is studied. From these
exceptional cases lessons ought to have
been learned that there is better way
of feeding than giving only the most
concentrated food. l have seen pigs
fed, some on only meal with water, and
others with meal mixed with other and
bulky food, and have invariably found
the latter the most healthy and always
ready to eat when their food was Of
fered and no waste occurred. Where
the pigs were fed with meal alone and
drink, the pigs after awhile seemed to
become cloyed and ate less heartily,
ofton wasting much of their feed.
Theory indicates, to my mind, that
meal fed alone goes into the stomach
in the state of dough, SO that the gastric
juice cannot penetrate the mass to per-
form its Office properly, while the more
bulky substance mixed with the meal
acts as a divisor, permitting the gastric
juice TO pass through and digest it
rapidly. Clear meal being so Slowly
digested, lying so long in the stomach,
creates disturbances and fever in the
system, while the pigs fed with more
bulky food are always healthy, lively
and ready for their food. Pigs fed on
meal alone are less evenly thrifty, as
they, after eating well for time, will
stop and FAST awhile. They apparently
recover, and then eat again, but never
with the seeming relish of those fed
with the more bulky food. This easily
accounts for the fact that corn and cob
meal are said by some to equal corn
meal alone for feeding and fattening
purposes.
When we consult the chemist he tells
us what analysis decides; but when we
compare actual results we find that
there is something that chemistry fails
to reveal. We find it thus in many of
our farm operations. Science, while
throwing much light on our everyday
occupations, must have the aid of ex-
perience to demonstrate perfectly. The
two never clash, but assist each other.
Actual experience demonstrates that
corn and cob meal is superior in feed
ing value to whole corn; not that the
same weight of each contains the same
nutriment, but that there is some factor
which lies below the surface, and that
factor | think is explained in the fore
going Cor. Country Gentleman
If the object of a pilgrimage to a
summer resort is to keep cool, the
Devils Slide'' in the Yellowstone
Park is the place to go. It freezes
there every night in the year Chicago
Herald.