The Bessemer indicator., 1893-12-16
THE FARM: AND HOME.
AN EXPERIENCED BREEDER ON
FEEDING HOGS.
The Right Kind Of Feeding for the
Beat Growtb-Posts Top Downwards-
thelter and Food-FArm Notes-How
to Servo y Dinner.
Swine Fee ling.

swine Fee ling.
To give definite rules for feeding
from year to year is hardly possible.
Grains vary in feeding value. prices
vary. making the most profitable
grain Of one year the most unprofit-
able of another. Weather must be-
considered. the condition Of the ami
mails require different methods and
materials at different times, and all
these must be mot and provided for
by tho feeder and his knowledge, OBJ
scrvation. experience; in short his
'hog sense" must be his guide. not
p intcd rules. Nor is success con-
:ined to the mere art OF feedipg. 20
matter how skillfully done.
Thoughtful and adequate provision
must be made in proper time and
season for the requisite feeding ma
tcrial.
As part OF the subject OF feeding.
| am OF course expected to say some
thing about cook 'ng. grinding. soak
ing whole grain, wet or dry meal and
sweet and sour food. On most farms
where swine feeding is conducted
on large scale there is seldom
sufficient milk. On my place pigs
learn to cat with the sows, and find
that not cooked food but that
brought to scaldlng heat and fed
while warm and sweet produces the
best results. The milk of tho SOW
is warm and sweet, and l deem it
best to conform as much as possible
to natural conditions in feeding arti-
fetal food. Scalding renders food
easier of digestion, warmth stimu-
lates growth and helps sustain ami
NAL heat.
The feeder should not only aim to
have sows that will successfully give
birth to pigs but those OF good milk
ing strains, Our dairy friends may
oh. .ect to this term being applied to
u SOW as in cows Plenty OF mothers
milk will give the pig the right
start during its sucking period
Separate troughs for sows and litters
are not provided at our place, but
shallow troughs OF sufficient length
for the whole family to dino at; this
is plan l believe not generally
r,'acticed, but pigs should eat with
out crowding. Quietness in feeding
co0duces to thrift.
No kind of food gives better salts
faction for sows and pigs than equal
parts, by weight, of shorts. bran and
corn meal. adding one pound OF oil
meal daily for each SOW and litter.
tho whole in connection with clover
pasture. The feed is mixed six to
twelve hours before feeding. SO as
to be fed before souring or fermen-
tatlon. 1t is well to observe, how
oSct, that in wet seasons percent
agD ol dry food is beneficial.
For the first ninety days my herd
of pigs, averaging from eighty to
l20. makes an average gain of three
quarters of a pound day, fed only
twice day after the pigs are six
weeks old. 1t may be said that by
my system of feeding the SOW will
got the lions share, but If she does
she gives it back in increased flow of
milk. Besides, ! think that sows
nursed to shadow will not have the
strength and vigor essential to their
next narrowing time. Few sows will
suckle pigs moro than ninety days
and .weaning the pigs" may safely
be left to the mother.
After weaving we soil the pigs in
their respective stys with green
peas for few days, then turn them
into the pea pasture day times. and
furnish them all the fresh. clean
water they want. The pea food is
likely to produce costiveness, but
feeding swill at night will correct
that tendency. This system of feed
ing rarely fails to give growth Of a
pound day, and it is that growth
and development all on heterogeneous
food that fits them for the final finish
on corn. At this period the differ
ence between whole and ground corn
is not large enough to compensate
for the cost of the grinding. But the
excrement should be watched, and
when corn passes wholly or in part
undigested, ground or soaked corn
should lie fcl. Inever got good re-
suits from barley, rye or oats when
fed whole and soaked, and think corn
is the only grain to feed unground-
and soaked successfully. The diges-
tive powers Of the animal grow
weaker as it ripens. and it is then
when slightly formented food aids
digestion. and stimulates appetite,
and soaking whole corn thon supplies
THAI necessary quality.
We all know that fattening an ami
NAL lessons its vitality aud often in
vitcs disease. Professor Robertson
once said: when u man sells hogs
whose main occupation has been
to squcal. he does not sell any skill.
There are long backed, long
long-snoutcd hogs who live n year
and half on Il man and then are not
willing to die ut profit for his bone.
fit. A man docs not, cannot sell
skill in such a package, but is trying
to ell sGueal, which is not market
able through a hog or any other chan
mel the world knows of. Then the
least We waste in swine feeding, and
lc : squcnl and more skill We can
sell must be our objective points"
From the address of Theodore Louis
before the National Swine Breeders
a sociation. Colman's Rural World.
heat Over standard Weight.
The wheat sent to tho worlds fair
from o, cgon weighed heavier than
that from any other state. It's aver
age was between sixty-two and one
half and sixty-three pounds per
bushel. Most OF the wheat from the
Middle and Eastern states is not
above bat rather under tho standard
weight sixty pounds per busheL
This indicates that Eastern wheat is
more starchy and the Weste;n wheat
has more gluten. Starch is much
the lightest part OF tho flour. while