The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-03-13

has to nurse from eight to ten pigs
and to increase their weight at about
four pounds per day, so that she may
raise them from one-third the weight
of calf at birth-about twenty-five
pounds litter-to double the weight of
a calf at six weeks old, and to greater
weight than herself with her first litter.
Such task as this demands more in
telligence and judgment than any other
occupation on the farm. The sow's
milk is, if she be properly fed, as rich
as the best Jersey or Guernsey milk,
having as high as eighteen per cent of
solids, and from four to five pounds of
dry matter per day in it. If she is 300
to $50 pounds, she must eat enough to
support herself, which will require six
pounds of dry matter day, and more
than one pound of dry food for every
pound of dry matter in her milk. This
calls for high nutritive ratio of L. As,
which should be made up of at least
20 pounds of skim milk per day.
1t will be safe to calculate about
one-tenth dry matter from this article,
and nutritive ratio of |: Is. The
following ration will be a fair pro-
vision: Skim-milk, 20; fax-seed meal,
2; bran, 2; gluten and oats, 2; cut
corn, 9; total, %.
Repeated experiments prove that
pigs consume as much as 81 pounds of
milk per day the first week, and pounds
the second week The appetites and
growth of the pigs will soon show what
change in this diet is needed by the
sow to provide for increased growth.
The whole profit of pig feeding is in
rapid and continuous growing. The
food should be cooked, and the skim
milk be warmed before feeding. In
addition, let the SOW have 10 to 10
pounds of corn ensilage or roots, or a
mixture of them, and, in summer, ex-
ercise on pasture. AS our pigs grow,
they will begin to help themselves, and
at three weeks old, with the ordinary
food. 1t is of importance not to give
them acid milk until they are weaned
and have got established for twenty
days on their new rations. If the
SOW is allowed to feed her pigs for
seven or eight weeks, this will bring
them to ten or eleven weeks before we
can feed buttermilk usefully. The best
German, English and American expe-
rience in pig feeding gives us l: 3.5,
|: 4, |: As, as the most useful ratio in
growing pigs from 80 pounds to 100
pounds, and from that to 140 pounds
and $50 pounds. With Is pounds of
buttermilk per day, we have one and a
quarter pounds of dry matter; this,
mixed with bran, ground oats and
gluten meal in equal proportions, and
fed at the rate of one and quarter
pounds of the mixture to Is pounds of
the buttermilk, will give us from IA
ounces to Is ounces of daily increase.
Fed in this way, the buttermilk would
prove to be worth 16 cents per 100
pounds.
1.-THE whole success of pig-feeding
depends on the care in the manage
ment and the time taken to make a
marketable pig of ITO pounds. There
is no profit beyond this limit, as the
cost of food increases so rapidly with
each advancing ten pounds of live
weight as to render the use of the
scales, at least once every thirty days
an imperative necessity. DR.. Goess
mann's four consecutive years in pig
feeding for profit is perhaps the mos
valuable of the kind in the world. BY
examining it carefully we shall see
how materially the quantity of foot
must increase after the first 100
pounds, and yet pigs marketed under
100 pounds do not yield so good price
as those between this weight and III
pounds, which is the extreme limit fol
profitable feeding for pork"
He furnishes the following as the daily
ration of food: Q) Live weight period
253 pounds; days feed, 27; skim-milk
III pounds; corn-meal, 10t ounces
daily increase, Is ounces. (2) Live
weight period, 53t days; days feed -
skim-milk, IA pounds; corn-meal, l;
ounces; gluten meal, ounces; bran,
ounces; daily increase, pound ounces
(3) Live weight period, 70pounds; day.
feed, 40; skim-milk, 10 pounds; corn
meal, %! ounces; gluten meal, 10.
ounces; bran, l0t ounces; daily in
crease, l pound 8 ounces. (4) Live
weight period, LAT pounds; days feed
%; skim-milk, 10 pounds; corn-meal
$50 ounces; gluten meal, 49, ounces
bran, 49, ounces; daily increase,
? pound ID ounces.
''These four feeding periods simpl,