Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-05-06
HEALTH OF HOGS.
Probably the Most Important Thing 60 30
Considered In Hog-Rearing.

Probably the Most Important Thing to Be
Considered In Hog Rearing.
Food is something which has its effect
every moment, and if it is not suited to
the animal, it will overcome all other
things and break down the best consti-
tuition with the best surroundings.
Hence, it is all important to know what
to give the pigs and the hogs to make
strong blood and bodies. Manifestly
combining the pig and the hog to one
kind of food all its life, and this one
kind of food deficient in some of the.
important, yea, vital elements, for a
full development of the body, IS sys-
tenn of feeding which must be deleter!-
Gus. and should not be allowed. Yet it
is. Why9 Because it has been done.
We grant our forefathers fed corn, but
they never fed it as it is fed now. they
used it as a rounding-up food, making
the body first on variety of foods.
They used to winter the pigs over and
give them the use of pasture; sow oats
and peas. and harvest them, and have
them ground. and steam their meal with
the boiled potatoes. The later-fed
hogs had corn. The experience
of the fathers, which was sue
cess, accords with science, that
hogs should have complete food, and
the old-time combination made it COM
pletely. 1t is a modern notion that corn
is everything and enough for hog;
This idea and practice is the result OF
progression" so-called. 1t is the out
growth of the ''early maturity doc
frine, and anything to do it. Early
maturity means, with most people,
simply fat or weight. 1t makes baby
beef and animated lard. There is no
substance in such kind of food, or in
such kind of animals, especially for
fathers and mothers. in comparison
with the old-fashionod hog grown on
clover or grass, with vegetables, apples,
oats, peas, potatoes, experience and
time. Here are all of the chemical ele-
ments for a perfect body, with big
chunk of wisdom thrown in for a laster.
Their hogs made good food, everybody
ate them. and the pork barrel was the
magic spot where the bones and sinews
were strengthened to toll as men now
do not realize. These hogs never heard
of hog cholera or scarcely any of the
other diseases now SO common, and the
natural heritage of corn-eal1y math-
rity.
why not accept the most natural one,
and then, like sensible men, try to cor
rect the evil? These hogs had arteries
and veins full of good blood, strong,
nutritious blood; while the modern inn
proved, early-matured hog has little
blood lacking in phosphate, bone ma
terial, albumen, muscle and tissue, and
general stamina or physical force,
which corn does not impart. Hogs thus
made up, fall an easy prey to all kinds
of diseases, and the longer this system
of feeding and rearing is kept up. the
weaker the hogs will get, and the more
liable they will be to take disease.
The farmers have been educated to
despise the ''old rail-splitters'' and the
''sunfish' of the South, but it is a fact
that the flesh of these much derided
hogs is more palatable and digestible
than the great mass of the early-matured
and improved hogs of the present.
They make the best bacon, and the
bacon is the best sample to show up the
composition of the hog. There is more
difference in the side than in any other
part. A modern, model pig will have
side of solid fat, as compared with the
semi-wld hogs of the South. One
is food, the other may be for
tnOSo VINO ike IL, ana one CrOuDI6
is, so many don't. We ought to make
pork everybody could eat, but we never
can do it by rushing hogs from their
birth, and giving them all the corn they
will eat. Here is chance for reform
in the quality of the meat, and by going
step farther we may make greater
change, both in the quality of the flesh
and in the health of the hogs.
Wheat bran and middlings should be
the chief grain food of pigs. When
several months old corn can be added
to these coupled with this food, which
should be more of the wheat than of the
corn; there should be pasture range,
and such vegetables and fruit as can be
supplied. The suggestion may not be
amiss that in some parts of the country,
at least, peas may be grown for the
hogs Peas make better pork than corn.
Oats will take the place very we'll of the
bran and middlings, with the hulls sifted
out for the calves. Hogs thus fed can
walk to market, and will stand up better
in transit. Buyers can afford to pay
more for them, as the risks are not so
great, and people will pay more for such
meat, when they know it. as there will
not be SO much waste in cooking, and on
the table, by an excess of fat. The fr,-
ture of our pork interests does not rest
entirely in the corn cribs, but in consid-
cradle part in the brains of the farmers.
F. d. Curtis, IN Colr,aaae's Rural World.