The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1890-12-25
FARMER AND PLANTER.
FATTENING SWINE.
Opportune Suggestions Upon Time
Tonic,


If hogs have been properly developed
and are full fed, though not upon too
concentrated food, they will take on
flesh very rapidly. Sometimes they
will lay on flesh to the amount of two
and half pounds day, but this is ex-
traordinary. There are some essen
tials in fattening, which are too fire.
quently disregarded and indifferent
success is the result In the first place
cleanliness should distinguish the in
| closure. Hogs will not fatten salts
factorily III a filthy mirage, nor where
they are compelled or permitted TO
drink impure water, which will be most
likely the case in an Enclosure that is
wet and miry. 1t is good plan, when
it is possible, to have a good surface
drainage, but at all events let some
means be devised to insure dryness, and
let there be a full supply of good,
wholesome water.
1t is somewhat difficult to determine
the space which the Enclosure should
| occupy, but it is enough to say that it
should be sufficiently large to promote
the comfort of the animal. At this
season and until Geld weather they
should be allowed to run freely on
grass, for in the first stages of fatten-
ing the muscular system must not be
neglected, if we would have healthy
hogs, and the reproducing foods will
not make muscle. The sudden change
from bulky diet, such as grass; to a
more concentrated food exclusively,
is often attended with the most serious
results, which are avoided II the animal
is judiciously fed on corn or other fat
producing food and not allowed to run
on grass at the same time.
When cold weather comes and the
hogs are taken from the pasture they
will not need a very large Enclosure.
The pen should be dry and warm, and so
arranged that the sleeping apartment
is distinct from where the animals
leave their droppings. The hog is a
clearly animal, if he has chance to be
so, and it never leaves its droppings
whore it sleeps if it can prevent it. Any
intelligent person must certainly per-
ceive the danger of compelling the ami
NAL to live in its own filth or any filth.
A great many of the various diseases,
which for convenience, perhaps, or prob
ably often in ignorance, are called
cholera, spring from this sort Of treat
ment.
In the matter of feeding concen ted
foods, the animal should be gradually
fed up to the amount it will eat. and
then regularly fed all that it will eat
up clean and no more The animal
never should be surfeited, but Just
given enough. 1t should come to each
meal with keen appetite. If we will
pause to think what surfeicing really
means, we will readily see why it should
be avoided If we ourselves become
surfeited, we know that the system be-
comes Frustrated to some degree, and
that we do not feel well, especially in
the presence of food. 1t is the same
with the hog. His condition when sur
feited is really more or less
condition of ill-health. The best
results do not depend so much
upon the quantity fed as they
do upon the quantity properly digested
and assimilated When a hog refuses
Us
it is set back several days. Good feed
ing consists in simply giving all the hog
will eat without destroying its appetite
After feeding for fattening has once
been begun, there should be a steady
increase up to the point of sufficiency,
and never a decrease. Corn, of course,
is the principal food, but it is advisable
to feed cooked potatoes and pumpkins,
mixed with mill stuffs, once a day.
Plenty of trough room is a necessity,
and plenty of pure water should be
supplied twice day. The hog will
drink a great deal of water, as the
practical hog-raiser we'll knows The
greatest care should be exercised to so
feed that the animal will not be COM
peeled to eat filth as well as its food.
If corn is fed it should be fed upon a
dry floor if possible. Neither good
pork nor much of it can come from
feeding filth. The sailing of hogs is a
very important matter, and they will
not and can not do well without regu-
lar supply of salt. 1t should be given
them once a day, and can be given in
ground oats-or in cooked mixture
mentioned above.
If the directions given are followed
the results will be satisfactory. Hog
raisers should make it an object to pro-
duce pork that is healthy and good in
every respect There is a deep-seated
prejudice against pork under the most
favorable circumstances, and it is to the
interest of pork producers to remove
this. But poor and diseased pork can
only increase this prejudice. In all our
markets there is pork that is not fit for
consumption, and consumers know it. AS
this paper has frequently said, good
pork is good food and healthy food, and,
after awhile. if the pork raisers strive
to produce good pork, the universal
public will learn this fact Western
Rural.
WORK FOR WOMEN.