The Colfax chronicle., 1900-12-01
FARMER ANDPLANTEK.
TOO MUCH CORN FOR HOGS:
Best Results with Hogs VIII be Se-
cured by Varying CSrn as Hog
Feed with Pasture, Etc.

1t seems risky thing for grower
of corn and hogs to venture the as
sertion that we fail to get best re-
suits where corn is our only grain
feed. The multitude of farmers in the
corn belt feed no grain but corn to
hogs. They have made money on hogs
and corn, and that ends inquiry and
argument. But as one who has been
guilty of the too common error
of relying on corn for hog feed,
want to say it is my belief that the
practice of feeding corn every day
from start to finish does not produce
as much nor as cheap nor as good
pork as we ought to make at same
cost.
corn. feeder from greater loss and dis
aster is the fact that most of us have
clover or bluegrass pasture. With
these abundant, and water convenient
and plentiful, we are saved from the
ills that come to those who feed corn
without run to grass or clover. We
have been accustomed to think that
our cheapest growth is made on corn
and clover. l am not prepared to
deny this, but my experience shows
to me that we get more uniform
growth and fewer arrangements of
condition of our growing stock when
we do not confine our feed to corn and
clover or bluegrass, but add bran
and middlings, and ground barley or
oats fed as slop before feeding
corn.
There is no danger of giving too
great variety to growing pigs or
breeding stock. There is great danger
of confining them to one article of
diet. Grass alone or clover may be
safe feed, and more safe than corn
alone, but mixture of the grass or
clover and corn is safer and cheaper
About this time in the year farm
ers begin to feed new corn freely
and often in too great quantities at
the start, with the result that their
hogs are often out of condition and
mt subjects for the prevailing disease.
We might cite many experiments of
feeding which all go to show that
corn is the most expensive single hog
feedwe have-when fed dalone-andt the
most valuable when a suitable addi-
tion of mill feed, ground barley or
oats is made.
1 know there are men who will
stand up before an institute and
boast that they feed nothing but
corn and that shey are opposed to
buying mill feed as a waste of good
money. Such men usually have plenty
of pasture or woods range for their
hogs and forget the value of the feed
there picked up by the hogs, giving
them the cooling variety SO essential
to health and good digestion. The
easiest way is not always the best
way, in fact, is seldom the best. We
arc fortunate who have plenty of
clover and grass for our hogs while
they convert our corn crop into pork.
If there is moderation in feeding corn
on clover and grass there is no dam
ger, but the question yet remains,
can we make quicker and cheaper
growth by not limiting our pigs and
hogs 20 corn alone but by adding a
part of our oats and barley to the ra-
ton? The most successful breeders
and feeders of my acquaintance think
these are as necessary as corn and al
ways regret when they have not
some other form of grain to add to
the corn.
About these days we often read
enthusiastic articles in favor of
pumpkins as hog feed and little
later some one can not say enough in
favor of roots. Well, these are only
adjuncts to our main feed corn and
add to the variety so essential to the
health and thrift of the pig. Any one
OF these much esteemed feeds is alone
poor ration, but if fed along with
corn or other grain is an addition of
great value, as they help the animal
to succulent, cooling article that CO.
ables it to more completely digest the
richer feed That the quality of the
pork is better and the product cheap
er are evident, but the fact that pork
made from such combination is bet
ter looses force from the fact that
packers grade the prices they pay for
hogs by weight more than by quality
of meat.
The experiments on the Ontario
Experiment Farm show that the dear
est and poorest pork made in a run
of four years with six breeds of hogs
was made from hogs fed corn alone;
that the cheapest and best pork was
made by combination of feeds of
which barley and oats formed parts.
The point which is prominent, is this:
We farmers can grow the oats and
barley and grasses as well as the
corn and there is no good reason why
we should feed only corn to our hogs.
With the grasses and clovers at our