Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1904-12-24

and they are becoming more and
more common nowadays, as pioneer
habits OF hustle and frugality are
left behind. Apply the same argu-
ments to swine, and we shall see that
these animals are affected as are
men by pampering methods of man
agement during winter. Yet we
heard swine breeder state at an
institute that ventilation for swine
was all humbug and that the great
difficulty was to keep them warm.
This he managed by shutting up all
inlets for air and claimed that even
then too much cold air entered the
barn. Let us ask how the aboriginal
hogs were managed by Nature? Were
they molly-coddled in stuffy dens and
nests, or had they to hardly with
stand the rigors of the climate while
searching for food? 1t is evident
that, left to nature, hogs like other
animals had to be hardy or succumb.
The fittest survived and SO the race
was perpetuated and kept at normal
standard of strength, vitality and
the situation" as regards pampered
hogs, for she kills off weakened
beasts that we would fain retain as
breeders. But she does not manage
to kill them all off, and we are there
fore permitted to retain weakened
beasts for the perpetuation of our
hog stocks. Would it not be a deal
better to take leaf out of Natures
book and practice the lessons to be
found thereon? Assuredly it would,
and the first paragraph to be read on
the page would be, hogs should be
made hardy, If they are to be used
for breeding purposes. That Poland.
China critic punched the sore spot
angrily in the article we quoted the
other day, but he was attaching the
breed in a vital spot and so it hurt.
1t would not hurt at all IL we gave
the critic no cause for attack; and
disease, the most caustic critic of all,
would have no more chance to crit
icise than the man writer, were we
to manage our hogs sensibly and
along natural lines. Take the matter
Of wintering swine, for example, and
we shall see that our loss of pigs and
sows in spring simply comes from
foolish management-kind manage
ment, foolishly applied. We surround
our brood sows with every comfort,
protect them against every untoward
circumstance and every wintry wind
that blows and meanwhile stuff them
to repleteness, not on the best calcu.
lated rations, but upon corn, the food
most relished and the one most easily
fed. The consequence is that the
sows become fat, sluggish, costive and
weak. They are so lazy that they
hate to leave their beds to eat more
corn. They have to be waited upon
like fine ladies and cannot stand the
least cold or work. Naturally they
fail to manufacture thrifty pigs. Such
pigs are the natural product Of nat
ural conditions. Such conditions are
lacking in the SOW, and the product
must necessarily be unnatural. So
we must consider that weak, spindly
pigs of little, insignificant filters
of pampered sows are unnatural prod
ucts such as Nature does not con-
slider worth keeping and so she right
eously vents her wrath upon them and
they die. Often she does this before
they are born and often she sees fit
to kill the SOW at the same time. All
these things happen simply because
we break natures laws. We do SO
during winter when we fail to allow
brood sows plenty Of outdoor exercise
every day when the weather will al.
low or ample exercise in sheds when
the weather is too stormy. Wo do so
also when we stint ventilation. ex.
clude sunlight and feed one food Law.
ishly. Let us turn over a new leaf
this winter-A. S. Alexander in Far
mers' Review.