Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-10-01
FEEDING SWINE.
Facts Leading TO the Belief That Food
Should he Cooked.

Facts Leading TO the Belief That Food
| Should BE Cooked.
The advocates and 10 opponents of
cooking food for hogs are by turns In
the majority. The practice ofcooking
most kind Of food for hogs has always
been general in New England and
some of the other Eastern States.
Many circumstances favored the prac-
tice there There is a disp osition to
make the most out of everything that
is produced on the farm. Mills for
grinding grain are common, and the
amount of toll exacted is small. In
most places wood for fuel is abundant
and cheap. In almost every farm house
or outbuilding is a large boiler, set over
an arch, which is often used in making
soap, and which. serves good pur-
pose in cooking food for hogs. On
Eastern farms there is more help kept
than on farms of the same size in the
West, and accordingly the time spent
in cooking food for hogs is scarcely
considered. In part of the country
where there are extensive old orchards
very many apples are raised, and the
poorer ones, Including the windfalls.
can not be disposed of in the
market Potatoes are one of the lead
ing crops, and they are largely depend
ed on for fattening hogs. Many pump
kins and squashes are also raised. All
of these make excellent food for hogs,
if they are properly cooked. but are of
comparatively little value if fed in the
raw state. The practice in the East is
to boil these fruits and vegetables, to
mash them. and to add corn meal.
ground peas, and bran and shorts.
Most Eastern farmers think it great
waste to feed raw food to hogs. The
only time in the year in which swine
are kept on raw food is summer, when
they live chiefly on grass. clover, weeds
and milk. The farmers believe that
growing pigs and store hogs can not
get along well enough on raw food,
but when they desire to Efatten hogs
they cook almost all the food they give
them. During quite cold weather they
are particular to have the cooked food
warm when they place it in the feed
ing-troughs.
In most portions of the West the
conditions are less favorable to cook
ing food for hogs. Less help is kept on
farms in proportion to their size. There
=
amount charged for grinding is greater.
1t is not common to find large kettles
suitable for cooking food for hogs in
any building belonging to farms.
Nearly all farmers buy the food they
use, and do not like to spend money in
keeping up fires to cook food for hogs.
On new farms there are no old or
chards, and all the apples that are
raised command a good price. Com
paratiyely few western farmers raise
pumpkins and squashes as field crops,
and potatoes are not generally raised
for stock food On many farms where
quite number of cattle are fattened
for the market little or no corn is fed
directly to hogs. They eat the grains
that pass through the organs of diges-
ton of the steers and become fat on
them. They are in nearly the Same
condition they would be if they were
stepped in warm water. In some Sec
tons it is the practice to turn hogs
into fields of grain that has been beat
en- down by storms, or to allow them
to CLEAN corn fields. There is dispo-
sition among western farmers to save
all the work possible, and they are
generally quite ready to be convinced
that there is the reverse of economy in
cooking food for hogs.
During the civil war pork and the
grain used to produce it were very
high, and farmers were DESTROYS OF
making as many pounds of pork from a
bushel of corn as possible. Expert
ments made by some noted feeders APP
parently demonstrated the fact that
corn ground and cooked and fed to
hogs ready to fatten produced nearly
twice as much pork as that which was
fed on the ear. On the publication of
these reports in the newspapers there
was great demand for farmrmills and
cooking apparatus. Manufacturers
were not slow to meet the demand.
They put on the market and displayed
at fairs great variety of boilers,
steamers and cooking-tanks, and dis
posed of them at very high prices. In
great reaction. Many who had pur-
chased apparatus for cooking TODD for
hogs declined to use it. Some declared
that hogs were more healthy that ate
raw food, while they gained quite as
fast. Some experiments were reported
that went to show that such was the
case 1t is certain that the practice of
cooking food for hogs was generally
abandoned throughout the great corn
growing regions of the West, where the
largest amount of pork is produced for
the market.
This season there is a revival of in
terest in cooking food for hogs. 1t is
now admitted that many of the expert
ments which showed unfavorable re-
suits, especially in the cooking of corn,
were never half made. The grains of
corn, or the meal made from it, was
boiled, but not properly cooked 1t
was heated, but not kept at the boiling
point of water sufficiently long to make
it readily digestible. Every house.
wife knows that corn meal must be
cooked long time before it is in con-
dition for the table. While it may not
be advisable to cook corn for feeding
to hogs in all stages of their growth,
there is doubtless economy in both
grinding and cooking it before feeding
It to hogs that are in the last stages of
the fattening process. In many cases
their teeth become sore after they have
eaten raw corn for several weeks.
Their digestion also becomes impaired,
while they show little disposition to eat
food. A change from raw corn to that
which has been ground and cooked,
or cooked without having been
ground, is followed by an increase of
appetite and rapid gain in weight.
This is especially the case when the
hogs are very heavy. In the absence
of milk or kitchen Stops cooked corn or
oat meal made thin like cruel is one of
the best kinds of food for young pigs.
The change from mothers milk to raw
corn is too great.
In those parts of the country where
large crops of corn can not be raised