The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1908-08-07
"roo FINE IN THE eoNE.p

Every year OF tne 20 III winch We lave
been engaged in agricultural journalism.
and sometimes many times during the
year. we have had complaints from
farmers that their hogs were getting too
fine in the bone. says Wallace's Farmer.
Sometimes farmers write US to know
where they can get a male with larger
bone. Other times they ask us what breed
they should cross with In order to in
crease the size Of the bone.
They seldom realize that the trouble
with hogs too fine in the bone is not in
the hogs primarily but in the farmer him
self. No matter what breed they are.
hogs will become too fine in the bone and
necessarily weak unless during the grow
ing period, when the entire skeleton is be-
ing built up, they have plenty of bone
making material in their feed or other
wise accessible. Everything that is added
TO the hogs body from pighood up goes
Il at the mouth, and everything in the
pig when first born has gone into it's
mothers mouth. If there is not suffi-
cient bone-making material in the food to
build up a sufficient skeleton. then it will
not be built up. The brood SOW may draw
build up the little pig, and as a result
build up the little pig. anr as q result
will be likely to break down when suck
ling these pigs, for the reason that her
bony system has been depleted by draw
ing on it for the support of the young
sters.
We speak of this now because the time
TO furnish bone material for hogs is in
.he growing season; and If hogs are not
allowed plenty of other feed containing
proper ~bone-making material, they are
certain to be too fine in the bone, and not
merely too fine, but too weak.
The great reason why hogs are too fine
In the bone is because they are fed too
much corn. Corn does nos furnish a suf-
ficient amount Of ~bone-naking material
for the little pig. Civ them clover, al
ro1Fo @~ alfalfa r,oo1 with -Lo-tr ~
meal or tankage. and there will be no
trouble with the bone, ever IL they come
from reasonably fine-boned ancestors. Too
coarse a bone is not desirable: it is gen
orally spongy. The medium sized solid
bone is the one that bears up the hog
of form that cannot be found in the
coarse-boned animals.
For example, we are told that the skele-
ton OF the trotting horse or the thorough
bred will weight quite as much as the
skeleton of the Shire or Clyde, although
the latter may be several hundred pounds
heavier than the former. The horse used
for speed, whether to trot or in the run
ming race, must have bone of such density
that 1t will be able to stand the impact of
the weight of the horse going at the rate
OF 90 miles or more an hour. Compared
with this the toughest steel is exceedingly
brittle. This density. it will be seen at
once, can not be acquired by crossing a
coarse-boned animal on a fine-boned one
for the purpose Of increasing the size. 1t
must be fed into the animal.
Hence the farmer whose hogs are too
fine in the bone, and who wishes to in
crease it, need not eXpect to do so by
buying a coarse-boned animal of the same
breed, or an animal of a coarser boned
breed. unless at the same time he i'm
proves his method of feeding. Fineness
or coarseness of the bone depends to a
large extent upon the gray matter in the