The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-08-25
why Hogs Have the Cholera.

Corresuondence New York Tribune.
The fault is less in the hog than in the food
and care. have been familiar with the man
aeement of swine for more than forty years, and
know that more than nine-tenths of our hogs
are stuffed with corn from the time they are
weaned until sold, except perhaps, for about four
months of the summer when they are kept on
clover pasture. 1t Is SO handy to throw corn TO
the pigs, and they seem to relish it so well, and
a fat pig looks nice. than the farmers who
grow breeding stock especially, stuff with corn
so that at shipping time the pigs may show
we'll and even the more intelligent among
them, who acknowledge that it il wrong, say
they are forced to do it their pigs will not look
or sell so well as those of their neighbors After
close observation and study for many years l
am convinced that the most important thing to
do to escape cholera is to feed less corn,
particularly during the first six months of
pigs life. At this period fat is not what we
want as the animal is-or ought to be- building
bone and muscle, and the food should largely
consist of milk bran, oats and grass. The
pig fed literally on this diet will develop better
than one fed corn, although 1t may not
be so fat or look quite so we'll. During hot
weather ground food made into slop is excellent
for pigs, and careful attention should be given
to its preparation. 1t should be mixed fresh
every day and should be fed only slightly soured
During the hottest weather it is best to empty
the barrel every day and make new start, and
in moderately hot weather few gallons may be
left to start a new fermentation. but the swill
offend the nose. Even in fattening hogs | do
not think it economical or safe to feed all the
corn they will eat, and nothing else with IT. and
l have found no other supplementary food so
cheap and valuable as pumpkins
have never raised pigs on an exclusive corn
diet, as most Of my neighbors do, and have
never had case of cholera, although it has pre-
vailed on the farms adjoining mine and has
swept off hogs by the thousands in sight of my
place. believe that nine-tenths of the losses of
hogs from disease be traced to three causes,
all of which are easily within the control of the
breeder. These are First, breeding from i'm
mature parents; second, an exclusive corn diet;
third, bad wintering Under the first head
think There has been change for the better in
the last few years, but for many generations
nine-tenths of the hogs were raised from sows
bred at eight months old and the tax of bearing
and sucking their young came at time when
they were not more than half grown and needed
to devote all their energies to their own devel-
opment Under ''bad winterings' / include not
only the fact that the diet is solely. but also
bad sleepng-Guarters, the bed usually beng
either damp dusty and the allowing of
large number of hogs of different sizes and
ages to eat and sleep together that the younger
and weaker, which need the best food and care,
invariably fare the worst. When pigs are raised
from mature mothers, fed during the first six
months of their life largely on bran, oats and
oil meal wintered in small lots with good, dry,
clean beds, and fed some loosening bulky food
each day, such as beets, potatoes, ETC., hog
cholera will lose its terror.