Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-02-03
s'rOCK-BREEDING.
ltny logs Are .Not 55urdy.

Prof. ". A. Henry, of the Wisconsin
Aericultllrai Experiment Station, writes
the Breeders' Gazette: Because corn is
cheaply grown and tie hogs like it. it does
not follow that corn is the best food for
hogs at all times; sugar Of late years has
become q very cheap article of human
food, and children and many grown per-
sons are very fond of it, but we know it
can very easily be used to excess. The
experiments of Prof. Sanborn, of Missouri,
and the writer show beyond all question
that the exclusive feeding Of corn, even to
a hog of considerable maturity, will greatly
change the structure and composition of
the creatures body. These experiments
plainly show that by feeding corn alone
the blood is greatly reduced in amount,
the hair grows lighter in weight, the skin
liver shrink in size and weight to o marked
degree. The muscular system can be but
partly developed on corn, and the bones
are lighter than they should be and greatly
lacking in strength. By consulting the
data of the experiments referred to above
the reader will note that by feeding corn
exclusively for 1876 days to hogs 100 days
old at the start We reduced the breaking
strength of the thigh bones over 800
pounds each, or weakening of over two
pounds a day in the natural strength of
these bones from what they should have
been.
What are hogs with weaker bones,
lessened blood, reduced kidneys and other
organs. less hair, and thinner skin but
hogs with poorer constitutions than they
| should have? Suppose hogs of this char
acter are used for breeding purposes, and
each generation of offspring is fed as the
parents We're, how long can such irrational
feeding and breeding go on before the re-
sultant animals form but weak, sickly
type of their progenitors? Such is the
average hog in the great corn belt of the
West in far too many instances. That the
pigs are born weak and die easily is not to
be wondered at; while il, perchance, run
ming the gantlet of ills that beset the
modern pig, it reaches that uncertain age
when we call it a hog, the creature is still
subject to the ravages of swine plague,
hog cholera, and many other mysterious
but very fatal maladies. In vain we search
for a healthy race of hogs. Let fresh
blood Of vigorous, healthy stock be intro
duced, and be it ever SO popular ct first,
in a few generations it runs out, and the
stock of hogs stands just where it did. Be
age hog in the corn districts of the West,
and not the animal under care of Thought
full breeders and feeders.
How, then, shall we improve? To know
the cause of the evil puts US, if we really
propose to do better in the future, we'll on
the road to improvement. Excessive corn
feeding is, of course, by no means the
only cause of the poor constitutions of our
swine, but it seems to ME we may Law q
goodly share of the ills of hog flesh to
this one great error. First of all, we
must feed to all breeding stock ration
which has in it an abundance of muscle
and bone-making food. Heading this list
we would place skim milk and buttermilk,
and following close after come shorts
(shipstutf or middlingsl, bran, oatmeal,
peaMeal, and clover pasture.
For young pigs three parts by weight of
milk to one OF corn meal or corn is about
the proper proportion. If shorts, mix
three parts to one of corn, while if oats,
about the same mixture will do. AS the
pigs grow older increase the proportion of
corn and decrease the other constituents of
the ration. Bran is too coarse, and does
not suit hogs as we'll as shorts. but it is
valuable if one cannot get shorts; as q
rule, though, leave it for the cows. Pigs
fed with the mixtures named above and
running to clover pasture if possible, but
in all cases given exercise, have the oppor-
tunity and kind of food to grow into
healthy, we'll developed breeders or
feeders. If to be fed off when the frame
is grown, corn can be the exclusive diet,
with no harm to the creature at SO late q
period in life.