The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1893-01-07
FARMER AND PLANTER.
FATTENINo HOGS.
POINTERS In the Process OF succeedIn,
Growth with Fat.

S Ia. noRS are put on the
market during the winter. The fall is
the iavorite season for fattening them.
ms is doubtless due to its being the
oes' seasoI; but to this there are many
eAcoppons. 1t is mistake, made by
navy, to begin the fattening process
70 late, carrying it into the severe win
ter weather, which Is not favora BILE to
nttening. The experiments of Prof
"anoorn, and others, have shown that
neither the hot weather of summer nor
tne cold weather of winter is the best
Tor fattening. The greatest gain from
certain amount of food is made, other
ehinGs being equal, during the moderate
weather of autumn.
Inc hogs, however, may reach the
most profitable age and size for fat
ten1ng at some other season. This
VIII likely be the case with fall filters.
On the other hand. fall is the season at
which spring filters, rightly managed,
reach the age and size most favorable
TO fattening, and the large majority of
pigs are Uttered in the spring. The
many practical experiments in pig feed
ing prove that the most profitable age
nv which to market hog is nine or ten
months, at which age it can be made to
weigh two hundred and fifty to three
hundred pounds; and feeding to make
this weight at this age is the
most profitable. This feeding makes
a steady, regular gain, mod
erately accelerated during six to eight
weeks at the close A common mis-
take is to make too abrupt change in
1000 that inaugurates the fattening
process. This is in large part due to
the previous feeding being too scant;
the pigs being on slow growth when
they should grow fast.
When the animals are heavily fed
when a fast growth is steadily main
tanned, the change in their feeding,
when their fattening is begun, is in the
character of their food rather than in
the quantity of it. The best food for
growing swine is red clover; the
best food for fattening them is In
dian corn. The wise swine raiser
will, where red clover and corn grow
well, grow his hogs on red clover pas
ture and fatten them on corn. While
growing they will have all the clover
and other wholesome food they need;
and while fattening they will have all
they want of corn and other food But
too often while growing. the hogs have
not nearly all the feed they need, and
to fatten they must have all the corn
they eat; hence, in their case they will |
be change in the quantity as we'll as |
the character of their feed, and the |
change should be made with all the |
greater care.
The chief point in making the change |
from growth to fattening is to make it |
gradually. AS little violence as pos
sible should be done to existing con-
ditions surrounding, and within, the
animal II the quantity of food is to |
be increased, the increase should lie
made by a small addition about every
ten days. If the total increase is made
Mt once, or in two or three days, the
digestive and assimilative organs of the
swine will be overtaxed, there will be
indigestion, constipation and loss of ap-
petite, and, if there is not positive dis
ease, at the least there will not be
a satisfactory gain. Though the
change is only in the character of /
the feed, it should be more grad
nal If corn is to be substituted for
clover as the principal feed, it should +
not be done in day. The quantity of
corn should be gradually increased un-
I'll at the end of two weeks the swine
are on full fattening rations II the
change is suddenly made from green
feed to dry hard grain, the animals will
certainly suffer from indigestion and
become constipated. Four-fifths of the
disease among swine would have been
prevented if constipation had been re-
lieved in good time. feel at libertytol
speak positively on this point, for
have raised hogs extensively without
losing l per cent. by disease during the
past twenty years, although in that
time swine plague has several times 1,
ragged in my immediate neighborhood.
The change from growing to fatten-
ing ration can best be made by keeping ,
the swine on their clover pasture dur
ing the change, when clover is as 1t ;
should be, the chief growing feed. Iii
find that it is better to keep the swine
on their pasture while they are being
fattened, unless the pasture is too large. /,
Not more than forty to fifty hogs should ,
be fattened in one herd, and a herd of !.
this size or less will do better in ten ,
to fifteen-acre pasture field than in al
feed lot. 1t took me some years to /,
learn this. / thought that if given the !
range of field swine would take too
much exercise and walk off tool
much fat But fulfilled swine, espe-
,ially when fed fattening foods,
will not take too much exercise. Di-
yestion and assimilation and the gen.
.ral health of the animals are better
because of the exercise the pasture field
permits and induces; and the bites of
pasture obtained are beneficial. g
Swine fed all they will eat of fatten- a
ng feeds, especially of corn, will surely
&al | n