The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-10-10
WEAVING PIGS.
The Advantage Accruing From Regular
and Sensible Feeding.

The Advantage Accruing From Regular
and Sensible Feeding.
In weaving pigs, there is something
more to be considered than simply
taking them away from their mother
They should be weaned gradually. so
as not to get any stunt or setback. To
take pigs away from their mother and
little home before they have been
taught to eat, gives them check for at
least two weeks; and this is quite a
little part of their lives, if they are
designed for slaughter when they are
six to eight months old. Feeding them
in a separate place, to which they have
access, will accustom them to eating,
and. when deprived of their mother's
milk, they will refuse to eat until
driven to it by hunger.
They must not be fed too much at a
time. or they will eat so much that they
will become poddy. When their food
is very sloppy, they will take so much
that the stomach will be distended be-
You'd It's natural size; and the result is
a pot-bellied pig, which means pig
with an unnatural and disordered
stomach, mean-looking pig, and one
which never makes a good animal. 1t
makes hog enough; for it always has
an unnatural appetite to fill the big void
made by the washy or excessive food it
had when young. A. little and often
should be the rule with pigs when wean-
ing, and also afterward. A healthy
hog has very quick digestion if the
ct at An1 M
this rule is followed they will grow
faster and keep their shape better. The
little pigs should never be fed more
than they will eat up clean; for, if they
have any swill or milk left over they
will muss in it and drop their eXcretions
in it, so that it will become very foul
and unhealthful.
Five times day is often enough to
feed pigs when they are sucking, and,
if they get good supply from their
mother, three times will do, or when
the old one is fed. When fed five
times, the first feeding should be in the
morning; the second in the middle of
the forenoon; then at noon; again in
the middle of the afternoon, and finally
at right. These are the best times to
feed all through the season. Any
amount of food fed at these intervals,
will make more growth in given
length of time than the same quantity
OF food given three times day. A
hog will always eat to excess if con-
fined aud fed all it can take. 1t will
always do the same if it breaks into
field of grain, or when first turned into
fresh field of corn or peas. After the
first gorge. if left alone, it will eat only a
good meal. and lie down by the food
with complaceht expression, as much
as to say: Here is enough"
1t is important that the troughs
should be low in which the little pigs
eat. When a young pig hangs on lis
stomach to eat out of trough, it is IN
just the position to hump up its back
and spoil its shape. 1t may be noticed
that | have not recommended corn for
pigs. This is because it is the worst
kind of food which can be given to
them, although the commonest. A
little, mingled with oats, or wheat mid
dlings. will do no harm, but good; but
an entire feeding Of corn is violation
of sanitary law, and does not eyince
good sense.-F. D. Curtis, IN Rural
New Yorker.