Hopkinsville Kentuckian., 1902-05-16
HOG RAISING AND FEEDING
Response by c. S. Coleman.

HOG RAISING AND FEEDING.
Response by G. S. Coleman.
It has been said that the name hog
for our swine was the most appropriate
one that could have been given because
they eat so much. Except, perhaps.
the tramp, or a boy, the hog will eat,
digest and assimilate more food than
any other animal, and while his food
is more concentrated and therefore
more expensive than that used for
flesh production in the steer or sheep,
yet the hog will pay for any extra
cost his rations represent, and beat the
others in cheap production Of meat.
For each two pounds of dry food con-
sumed the well-bred and proper-en-
tironed hog will make of live weight
twice as many pounds as a sheep, and
two and twO-thirds as many as a
steer.
The hog is a specialist. It Is his
aim in life to eat and sleep, grow fat
and die, and raise the mortgage or
educate the boys and girls or to per-
form any other post mortem financial
operation that the farmer selects.
How to raise them. The first thing
necessary to successful hog-raising is
to have your pigs farrowed at the
proper time. / try to have my pigs
come the last Of February or the first
Of March. / do not think November
and December pigs pay. It requires
a good deal of attention to be success
full with pigs at this time of year To
succeed you should have good warm
sheds for your sows to bed in and
should see that the bedding is kept
dry and clean. The ped should be
cleaned out and new bedding put in
about every ten days; if the beds are
damp you will be pretty apt to have a
lot of bob-tailed pigs. Do not let
over two sows stay in one bed.
How to feed them. The sows should
be fed a laxative slop made of bran
ard shorts with some corn. The pigs
will begin to crack corn at three weeks
old. They should have a pen where the
scws can not get in and be fed just
What they will eat up clean of a slop
Of shorts and bran with some corn
or ground wheat. While you should
feed your pigs what they will eat,
YOU have to be very careful not to over
feed, which will give them scours,
which is a sure sign that your pigs
are over-fed and that you had better
reduce feed. The feed should be in
creased as the pigs grow older, adding
more corn, and at eight or ten weeks
old they will wean themselves and
are ready for the clover fields the
first of May on which they will thrive
with very little feed, but if you have
it, little corn until harvest will pay
! try TO have my next litter to come
in August or first Of September. These
do not require so much care as there
is usually plenty of wheat in the fields,
but they should be looked after and
kept clear Of lice. do this by boring
two-inch hole as deep as I can get
at the end of a four or six-inch post
with corners trimmed off, wrapping II
well with old sacks or a cotton rope
after boring four gimlet holes at the
bottom Of augur hole to let the oil
out. / plant it well in the ground or
the hogs will rub 1t up. then put hog
Gil or crude oil in the hole IN the
post, which runs out at the gimlet hole,
and saturates the sacks. You would
be surprised to see how anxious
they are to rub up against the post,
and each other after they get the oil
on them.
give my hogs salt and ashes once
or twice a week with a little sulphur
and lime occasionally and try to keep
them in a thrifty condition all the
time. and / believe the key to health
and thrift IN hog-raising is clean