The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-06

Milking Hogs Profitable

i HG mug VIII eat so muc1 refuSe 1000
that no other farm stock will touch, that
some can be kept on every farm with
| profit, says the American Cultivator This
| food is not unwholesome nor innutritious
| The hog has small stomach, but has very
strong digestive powers, and can make
more out of concentrated food than any
I other kind of stock. But a suitable varie-
| ty in the ration is extremely important
The chief fault in most corn feeding is
that the ration is too exclusively carbon
acous This is especially true whenever
large numbers of hogs are to be fed. No
| food can be procured in large amounts so
easily and so cheaply as corn. Western
| farmers have, however, found that this
exclusive corn feeding results in disease
| The animals digestive organs become
| c! 0gged. Whenever this is'the case the
blood is soon filled with poisons from mat
| ter which remains in and clogs the stom-
ach, instead of being digested and quick
| ly evacuated, as food should do.
| 1t is a common mistake to suppose that
| hogs have naturally strong digestion. If
properly fed so as to exercise the digestive
! organs without overworking them, the hog
| will in time require the ability to digest
| large amounts of concentrated food but
at first the young pig can eat very little
| Nature provides for this, for with even
moderate litter of pigs the amount of milk
which the best sow can give is very small
for each one. Hence the young pig suck
| les often, and as the sow's milk is very
| easily digested the small amount obtained
| is quickly turned into blood, and its waste
| is evacuated. By the time a pig is two
weeks old, or even earlier, it will want adj
ditional food. The very best is milk of
the COW. Usually skim-milk is given, which
is even better for making frame than is
| the milk from its dam. If skim-milk can
not be got, mix some oatmeal or wheat
middlings with water enough to partially
cook it. Only for young pigs, however
should this food be cooked, and for them
only because the cooking adds to the di-
gestibility of foods, and thus aids the pigs
weaker digestion. AS the pig grows into
a hog, 1t will grow and fatten faster on
grain that is uncooked. The pig then will
be tempted to eat more, and the expansion
| Of food in it's stomach causes the pig to
| lie down and sleep while the process of di-
gestion is going on.
| Only after the pig has been accustomed
TO eating and digesting other food can
corn be safely given. For the final fat
tening of the hog corn Is probably the
very best food, putting on flesh, or rather
fat, faster and more cheaply that on any
other food. But corn for a young pig
or cornmeal, will stunt it's growth so
that no after good feeding can be profit
able. This is why the spring pig is every
where regarded as more profitable than
the late summer or fall pig. The latter
comes to its corn diet too young, and be-
fore it's digestive organs have had the
exercise in digesting other food This
explains why the old practice of nearly
starving pigs through the summer, ana
then changing suddenly to a diet of all
the hard corn they can eat is never a sue
cess. 1t is far better to feed with easily
digestible food a few weeks before put
ting hogs on corn. Better still it is to
keep the young pig growing so that it al
ways has enough to eat Then it will
grow large frame, and this will enable
it to eat and digest a larger amount of
corn when the proper time for corn feed
ing comes.
We believe that more eastern farmers
can make their farms profitable by devot-
ing a good portion of their capital to hog
growing, at the same time growing most
of the feed required. This need not in
terfere with other farming, or even with
gardening. 1t may be made helpful to
either. The hog does not make large
amount of manure because it is it's habit
to put most of the food it eats on its
body in flesh or fat. But wherever farm
crops, fruit or vegetables are largely
grown much must waste unless there are
hogs to eat it. A great part of the hogs
living will thus be got from refuse yet
wholesome matter. This will be cheaper
feed than the western farmers cheap
corn, and far better for the health of the
hog. The farmer or gardener who keeps
hogs thus can turn them into money when
ever he cares to. He can well afford to
buy some wheat middling if he does not
care to grow wheat or rye to feed the
grain whole. as when grain is injured by
rains is done more or less by all farmers.
BY this method of keeping hogs, corn
0t11xr lNaa lpd in hn Aro fotf
ing, and this can generally be grown more
cheaply on the farm where it is required
than it can be purchased and brought
there.