Hillsboro recorder., 1888-07-26
Feeding Young Pigs.


II the young pig is not getting enough
milk from its mother to push it, which
usually occurs about the fourth or fifth
week of Its life, fix little troughs so thst
none but the little ones can have access
TO them, and give the pigs two or three
small rations daily of cows milk. 1t is
not best at the start to feed whole milk,
or, if so, it should be diluted with one
third water and fed to them warm and
perfectly sweet. Half a pint at feed
until they are six weeks old will be found
a liberal allowance, in addition to what
they get from the sow. After the
eighth week they MAJ have the
whole milk, and the quantity may
be increased gradually until they have
all they will consume. About the tenth
or twelfth week, if small ration of
corn meal is added to the milk, the pigs
will quickly respond with added growth
and appearance. The milk is making
bone and muscle, and the corn meal will
interlard streak of fat that viii give to
the hams and shoulders that fine marbled
appearance that butchers and connois.
seurs delight in. If the feeder is near a
city or large home market, where he can
supply certain butchers, it is no hard
matter by little care and foresight to
establish brand of butchers pork that
will readily command one or two cents
above the market. But there must be
real excellence in the product. 1t cannot
be done with any kind of a pig, by
simply making il very fat. For this kind
of feeding the Berkshire and Essex, if
pure bred, are particularly well adapted.
BY following the plan indicated above,
with grass or clover in summer, and
steamed fodder or hay in winter, it is no
trouble to turn of pigs Of 200 to $50
pounds weight at seven or eight months,
and this is the most that butchers want
for the local market, while during the
summer $50 pounds suits them better if
rightly fed.
This, however, applies chiefly to small
farms and nearness to market. and no
doubt the same practice can be followed
by thousands of Our largest feeders with
added profit to their present course. 1t
II within the observation of thinking
breeders, that If there is any hog disease
IN the country certain ones seem to get
more than their share of it. This is for
the most part due either to in.breeding,
or to an exclusive corn diet. Either of
these win debilitate the constitution,
and are especially to be guarded against
If one would be successful in this busi-
ness. As TO how long the milk diet can
be proftably continued. we desire to
quote an experiment made by Professor
Shelton, at the Kansas Agricultural Col
lege. His experiment was made with
ten pure-bred Essex pigs, whose average
age was eighty days, aud the average
weight forty-one pounds and a Traction.
They were divided into lots of Eve
each, but each pig had pen TO it
self. Soon after the experiment began,
one pig had 10 be- withdrawn
on account Of sickness. One lot
was fed new milk fresh from the cow,
with shorts; the other lots shorts and
water. All feed was accurately weighed.
and several facts are deducible from the
experiment, but We wish TO use it in its
relation to milk as pig food. The result
after feeding 100 days was that those
which received the milk diet weighed
III pounds, while those that got no milk
weighed IOl pounds, a difference Of Just
forty pounds each in favor Of the milk.
But this Is. not al. Professor Shelton says
''The milk fed pigs at the end Of the ex-
pertinent were ripe and ready for the
butcher, while those that were fed on
shorts alone were quite unstable. The
pigs which had received the milk were
sold to the butcher at the highest market
price: the Others, with possibly two ex.
ceptions, we're salable only as stockers.
Indeed, three Of them did not weigh,
four months later, as much as the milk.
fed pigs did 81 the end Of the expert.
ment '--1Msrieag AgrieH,taria.
Farm and Garden Notes.
Poultry viii not thrive in q wet OF