The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1898-11-15
LETTER TO THE BRIGHT BOY ON
THR FARM.
No 2

Last week I talked TO you about
matters and things in the COW lot and
asked you to open your eyes and test
certain theories and see how they
work in with your fathers practice.
Inasmuch as you ave in the habit of
feeding pigs, sometimes at least. I
want you to test some theories in the
pig pen. have a theory that farmers
are going a little daft on pigs; that
they think a good deal more of the
nice, fine looking, chuffy, animated
lard keg that Waddles around the yard
with a pretty little kink in it's tail and
makes the young girl who visits your
fathers farm exclaim, ''Oh, how cute,
aren't they sweet, little things; too
sweet for anythingI' If you have
this kind Of pigs on your farm, which
I suspect you have, want you to no
tice how they are fed. You will find
they have about all the corn they want
to eat. If your father is breeder Of
fine hogs and is fixing them up for the
fair you will probably find that he
gives them of the milk of the dam and
probably slips in a little fresh cows
milk in addition. Now my theory is
that nature don't intend pig to grow
that way; that she intended it to grow
in bone, in mu sole, and to be something
of russler, and when you come along,
whistling in the dog fennel or reg
weed in the pasture and get close to
them, they start eff as fast as they
can and make queer noise which l
cannot put on paper, but which, I
think, is intended for a pigs laugh
when something touches its tickle bone
or when it sees the point of a joke.
They mean to say to you, "You young
rascal, catch us if you can" These
fellows have corn, but they run on
clover, and they have oats once day
or pos IDLY some bran and shorts, and
they feel as funny as a boy going out
the Fourth OF July or racing home
from school when he knows that his
M .ther has prepared supper Of fried
chicken, sweet potatoes and apple
dumplings for her boy when he comes.
Now my theory is that these last
pigs are fed what we call balanced
ration; that is, the proper proportion
Of fash formers, foods that make
muscle, of bone formers-that is, OF
the ash elements and of carbohydrates,
or the fuel element, that which keeps
the pig warm and stores the surplus as
fat-While the little chuffy fellows are
like spoiled children, filled up with
sweets corn, the milk of their dam
and cows milk-and hence, like some
boys who are pretty to look upon in
these nice suits and with their hair
parted in the middle and well oiled,
but Of not much account when it comes
to running a race or doing hard days
work, or even hunting rabbits
want you to notice further the
brood sows that run your fathers fat
tening cattle, and notice particularly
the strength of pigs which they will
furnish next spring. My theory is
that brood SOW is pig factory and
that she must be fed with food that
furnishes the raw material that makes
a little ig-bone. gristle and muscle;
blood and hair, with not much fat
about it-and, therefore, the brood SOW
must be fed with food that furnishes
these; and that the corn which she
gathers up in the droppiDgs of cattle
furnishes too much fat, which is not
wanted, and not enough bone and mus
Gle, which are wanted. want you to
notice carefully and see whether your
Uncle Henry's theory on this works
out. He likes to construct theories