Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-06-04
CHEAP PORK.
1t Costs Too Much Because 1t Is Too Long
in Making.

It Costs Too Much Because 1t Is Too Long
in Making.
Pork, as a rule, costs too much, and
1t costs too much when it requires more
than one years growth to make 800 or
$50 pounds. 1t is not so much the
quantity of feed which makes up the
cost as the time in which this feed is
used. A pig $50 days old may have
eaten !, 800 pounds of corn and made
weight of 800 pounds on it, which
leaves good profit, while one $50 or
500 days old may consume the same
more than 200 pounds, which will leave
a loss. And this is because one winter
is passed through during which either
no gain in weight is made or there is
an actual loss in flesh. 1t will not pay
now, if it ever did, to throw away feed
in the mere support of life. Unless the
food is spent with the most profitable
results money is lost, and as winter
feeding mostly results in loss of weight,
or at the best requires large con-
sumption of food to supply the neces-
safy loss of heat, winter feeding can
not be profitable.
There is never any wis dom in going
to extremes. The 'happy mean is al
ways the best. Forcing the feeding is
costly. and larger quantity of food
crowded into an animal than can be
BEAUTIFULLY assimilated and turned into
flesh is a useless waste just as much as
the too slowly matured animal is. In
rearing pigs, then, it is advisable to
have a system, and arrange the meth
DDS of keeping them to suit it. For
instance. no pigs should be fed over
winter but the breeding stock. The
brood sows should have pigs in March
or earlier, and these pigs reasonably
well fed should weigh $50 or 500
pounds by December 1t is plain to
every expert pork grower that these
suggestions imply a good deal more
than appears at first sight. To have
pigs so early suitable pens, properly
warmed, must be provided, and this is
a point which requires good deal of
consideration and preparation, and to
feed pigs reasonably well is matter
upon which volume might we'll be
written. But some few suggestions
on this point should be made just here.
More pigs are hurt and more pork
is wasted by unreasonable feed
luS Ill UOtu ulreCLlOQS imam
in any other way. Overlooking pro-
duces disease, which puts back the pigs
and wastes both time and food. Spare
feeding merely prevents full growth
and loses time. What are needed are
full feeding of perfectly wholesome and
appropriate food. This means varied
diet of green heritage. such as grass
and clover, or other green for
age, as rye, barley, peas, or corn,
with some grain or ground feed, and,
lastly, full feeding on corn for finish
only. 1t means, also, sound corn and
not half-matured, innutritious grain,
which is only fit for food after it has
been matured by cooking. Too nuch
corn feeding produces the worst Of dis
eases-the intestinal fever caused by |
the non-assimilation of large part of |
the food, and the consequent excess of |
carbonaceous matter in the blood, and |
spinal meningitis, which produces the |
very frequent paralysis of the hind |
quarters. So that the most profitable |
way is to keep the animals always in |
high condition and perfect health and |
to finish with the corn feeding as rap
idly as possible.-N. Y. Times.