The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1889-09-04
Raising Pork.

Do not keep the swine penned up III
summer. Do not incite in causing
them to take extra exercise in hot
weather if they are fat. 1t will do
them good to give them chance to
root. The hog is naturally a rooter.
Give them grass, apples, fruits OF any
kind for which you have no use. Hogs
fatten rapidly on sweet corn. Feed
them green stalks, even if you have
other uses for the corn. Sugar-cane
and sorghum are similar in value to
sweet corn. Swine will eat many
weeds to their own advantage and OF
course to the advantage of the land.
In an article in the Agriculturist Mr..
F. u. Curtis expresses the Stockmans
ideas very nearly in the matter of
feeding. He says that the cheap
est food makes the best pork.
The reason is. it is the lean
est Lean pork then being the
best, we should try to make it, Con-
linement in pens tends to increase the
fat. Exercise develops the muscles.
The muscular part is the best food.
The fat is largely waste. We make
fat to throw it away. People buy
hams not for the fat, but for the lean.
When tho fat is wasted it makes tho
lean cost just 80 much more. Reduce
tho fat and increase the lean. Can this
be done? Certainly. In this way:
Keep the pigs all their lives in the
pasture. Feed skim-milll and bran.
Keep corn away from them. Give
them vegetables and apples with the
BRAN When the bodies or frames are
grown, give them oatmeal or rye,
ground entire, mixed with bran, put
ting in twice as much bran as rye.
Keep up the vegetable and apple diet,
and allow them during this time
to cat all the grass they will.
A little corn may be fed
toward tho end. Pork made
in this way will have more lean. and
be tender and juicy. At Kirby Home
stead. by using turnips. they have pro
duced hams seventy-fve per cent. lean
The fat is something moro than mer,
. lard-animal oil. II is meat, with TIT
substance and grain of meat. To ge
such pork is worth trying for, and it i
= in demand. The sausage and the othe
food products made from such pig
meat are superior in quality and taste
There is a tenderness and flavor which
enhances the value. Pigs should no
g be fed so much or gorged to such a
d extent that they will not go out int
~ the pasture. An active pig will max
u better meat than helpless one-mad
u so by lack of true muscle and vigol
l. 1t is advisable to plant apple tree
for early ripening, in order to Civ
>. the pigs a start. Fifty trees of TIL
l. kind have been set this year at Kirb
q Homestead, including twenty Earl
10 Harvest. Apples do not make f;
!, pork, but they do make plenty of lea
l. meat, and that of extra quality. Pun
St lsins can be utilized in the same wa
a Gradually the requirements of co
n stlmers for more lean pork will opt
s. the eyes of farmers to the fact tn
St the consumers are right and we wi
or have less of the greasy, indigestib
OF animated lard tubs called tearly m
ne tured pork" 1.-The most weight
I'd the shortest time,' is a heresy whi'
h. has broken down lots of Americ;
n stomachs and set thousands of poop
n against pork. There is no animal
ST. the farm which can be turned to b.
q ter account than the hog to utili
nj wastes and cheap foods, and as
an factor for enriching the farm. For
w. steady diet give the pig grass.-N
or tional Stocllman.