Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1891 — THE PIGGERY. [ARTICLE]

THE PIGGERY.

Pigs for Profit. The most successful poultry raiser I ever knew, a woman whoso sales of poultry and eggs reached 83,000 a year, 1 aid down as a rule never tobedevlatod from, to push all stock so as to make tho growth as rapid as posslplo, and sell just as soon as marketable. A man who has for several years grown 150 pigs yearly, and sold them at six months old, says no farmer can afford to feed a pig longer than this. I have attained a weight of 200 pounds at this age, and found tho cost per pound much less than when I fed longer, and made a weight of 300 pounds or more’ and tho risk of loss from disease is very much less than from older hogs. If pigs are sold at this age the spring litters need not be dropped till cold weather is over, say April 1, and will be marketed before winter weather sets in, so that no food will be wasted in maintaining vital heat. Tho fall litters can be dropped in time to get a good start before tho cold weather sets in, and in a good hog house can be kept thrifty all winter and sold in early spring. 1 And it profitable to keep the fall litters till a month or more older than tho spring litters, so as to finish them off for market after tho cold weather is over. I find it profitable to raise two litters a year, for mature sows give the largest and most v igorous pigs, and the cost of keeping a full-grown sow is large, and the second!litter will add to the profit. To make pig-growing profitable they must bo pushed from tho start, and at the same time good judgement must bo exercised in feeding. Milk is tho best and corn the worst feed for pigs during the first few months when they are forming bone and muscle. Yet I can make good thrifty pigs without milk, and can ralsosfalrly good pigs with corn as tho main food. Next to milk I prefer bran, oats and oilmoal, and can make fairly good and palatable slop from these, and pusn a rapid growth. Tho first thing to bo done is to got the pigs to eating before they are weaned, so that their growth will not be checked when taken from the mother. Until four months old the growth of frame should bo pushed as much as possible, but do not attempt to fatten them, and for this reason the less corn they eat tho better. At four months old begin to feed corn, moderately at first, but in ten days you may give them all they will eat, but you will get growth as well as fat, and more lean meat, if you keep up the bran-slop until they aro ready for market. I believe in feeding three times a day just what they will eat clean, and so they will always come with a good appetite for the next incal, rather than to keep food by them all tho time, as some do. I have for many years fattened my own meat from spring pigs fed in this way, and I think I have a better quality of pork than it would be possible for me to buy.— New York Tribune.

Mote*. Don’t breed more sows than you can properly care for. It Is poor policy to keep pigs of all ages and sizes together. •See that the sows about to farrow are not left out some cold night, and a lot of dead or dying pigs found In the morning. Don’t stint the young sows yon intend to breed soon. Oats, wheat middlings, and a little oil-cake will be much better for them than heavy corn feeding. Avoid too close in-breeding, keep in a good healthy place, and do not feed too much corn, and bog cholera will go by your pens much quicker than it will go by the pens where these rules are not observed. It is the feeling with breeders of purebred hogs that within the coining year breeding stock will be in great demand in many hog-growing sections. On account of the scarcity of corn farmers have sold off their, stock too close. Of the extent of this error it is Impossible to judge. tJpder pressing necessity the short supply of breeding stock retained will repopulate the farms with wonderful rapidity