The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-12-05
THE FARM M HOME.
An Experienced Breeder On Feeding
Hogs
The Right Kind of Feeding for the
Best GrOWth-POsts Top DOuUnWGTds
Shelter and Food.
SWINE FEEDING.

Shelter and Food.
SWINE FEEDING.
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 Improbable Of
another. Weather must be considered,
the condition of the animals require
different methods and materials at
different times, and all these must be
met and provided for by the feeder
and his knowledge, observation, ex-
perience; in short his "hog sense"
must be his guide, not printed rules.
Nor is success confined to the mere art
Of feeding, no matter how skillfully
done.
Thoughtful and adequate provision
must be made in proper time and
season for the requis. tie feeding ma
terial.
AS part of the subject of feeding, 1
am of course expected to say some
thing about cooking, grinding, soak
ing whole grain, wet or dry meal and
sweet and soul food. On most farms
where swine feeding is conducted on a
large scale there is seldom sufficient
milk. On my place pigs learn to eat
with the sows, and l find that not
cooked food but that brought to a
sealding heat and fed while warm and
sweet produces the best results. The
milk of the SOW is warm and sweet,
and I deem it best to conform as much
as possible to natural conditions in feed
ing artificial food. Scalding renders
food easier of digestion, warmth stimu
lates growth and helps sustain animal
heat.
The feeder should not only aim to
have sows that will successfully give
birth to pigs but those of good milking
strains. Our dairy friends may object
to this term being applied to a SOW as
in COWS. Plenty of mothers milk will
give the pig the right start during his
sucking period. Separate troughs for
sows and filters are not provided at
u place, but Shallow troughs of sum
cient length for the whole family to
dine at; this is a plan l believe not
generally practiced, but pigs should
eat without crowding. Quietness in
feeding conduces to thrift.
No kind Of food gives better satisfac
ton for sows and pigs then equal parts,
by weight, of shorts, bran and corn
meal. adding one pound of oil meal
daily for each SOW and litter, the whole
in connection with clover pasture. The
feed is mixed six to twelve hours be-
fore feeding, so as to be fed before |
souring or fermentation. 1t is well to
observe, however, that in wet seasons
a percentage of dry food is beneficial.
For the first ninety days my herd of
pigs, averaging ;from 80 to 12e, makes
An average gain of three-quarters of
a pound a day, fed only twice a day
after the pigs are six weeks old. 1t
may be said that by my system of
feeding the SOW Vil get the lions share,
but if she does she gives it back in in
creased flow of milk. Besides, 1 think
that sows nursed to a shadow will not
have the strength and vigor essential
to their next farrowipg time. Few
lows will suCkle pigs more than niuety
days and wearing the pigs" may
safely be left to the mother.
After weaving Re soil the pigs in
their respective stys with green peas
for a 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 pro
duce cOstiveness, but feeding swill at
night will correct that tendency. This
system of feeding rarely fails to give
a growth Of a pound q 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
difference 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 IN
digested, ground or soaked corn should
be fed. never got good results from
barley, rye OF oats when fed whole and
soaked, and think corn is the only
grain TO feed unground and soaked
successfully. The digestive po wers of
the animal grow weaker as it ripens,
and it is then when a slightly fer,
mented food aids digestion, and stimu-
lates appetites, and soaking whole corn
then supplies that necessary quality.
We all know that ~fattening an ami