Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1888 — SUMMER DIET FOR PIGS. [ARTICLE]

SUMMER DIET FOR PIGS.

Practical Tanner. There is no better food for young pigs after wanning good skimmed milk, with a little sweet, moderately fine wheat bran and cornmeal stirred into it. There should not be a large proportion of meal in the mixture at first, nor so long as the pig is making growth, though corn-meal is excellent to finish off fat-

tening with. Many a young pig has lieen spoiled by overfeeding'with corn or good growth on such food alone. Clear milk would be better, but milk will pay a larger profit when given in connection with some grain. Milk alone is rather to bulky for a sole diet; it distends' the stomach too much and gives the animal to much to do to get rid of the surplus water. Many young pigs are spoiled by overfeed. I When first weaned they should be given a little at a time and often. They always will put a foot in the trough, and food left before them a loqg time gets so dirty that it may be entirely unfit to be eaton. But one of the worst methods of feeding milk to pigslstohave it stand in a sour swi:l barrel, mixed in along w-ith cucumber parings, sweet corn cobs and other kitchen w astes, till the whole mass is far advanced in the fermentation stage. Sweet milk is good, and milk that is slightly sour may be better. It may be even more easily digested, but milk that has soured till it bubbles, till the sugar in it has turned into alcohol or into vinegar, it is not fit food for sw-ine of any age, and certainly not for young pigs that have just been taken from their mother. A hog will endure considerable abuse, will live in wet and filthy pens, will eat almost every sort of food, and often thrive fairly well, but a pig that is kept in comfortable quarters and fed upon wholesome food will pay a much better profit to the owner and furnish much.sweeter pork for the barrel. Nearly all the diseases which hogs are subject to are caused by cold, wet pens, qt by sour, inferior swill. Better throw surplus milk away than to keep it till it rots and then force it down the throats of swine. Farmers should keep enough swine to take all the wastes of the farm while in a fresh condition, and then supplement it with good wheat middlings and corn meal. Our own practice has been to keep pigs enough to take the skimmed milk each day from the dairy room, without the use of a swill barrel to store and sour it in. A swill barrel in summer is a nuisance on any farm. We could never find a good place to keep it—where it would not draw fles or breed flies. In winter it would be less objectionable, but it is a nuisance at all times and in all places.

alfalfa and mamoth clover. A Sanborn county (Da.) correspondent to the Prairie Farmer writes: “During the last two years I haveexperimented quite extensively in the above grasses and with highly satisfactory results. On or about May 15, 1887, I sowed five acres of alfalfa and mammoth clover. The g ro u n dwas: pio wedrdfeepffyaniTth o roughly before we sowed the seed. After seeding we gave it a fine harrowing and finished off . with a good heavy rolling. It came up seasonably, and seventy-two days from date of seeding I had samples of the alfalfa and clover. The latter wasvery nice, while the alfalfa showed a growth of top of 10 inches, and roots 22 inches long. The year 1887 will long be remembered by the people of South Dakota as a bad, dry season to start grasses of any kind, and the only wonder is that the grass lived at all. • We had no - rains to speak of in the fall of 1887, and I almost eicpected, in view of all this, to meet with a failure, or, at best, a very poor stand of grass. But, to my stir-' prise-, both the alfalfa and clover- camethrough the winter in nice shape, and all growing finely. Many heads of the alfalfa are now 10 inches high. The clover shows equally as fine a growth. It is my opinion the reason why so many farmers fail in raising these grasses is that the soil is too shallow and poorly prepared, and the young, tender roots can not penetrate the hard ground. I have no doubt but if the farmers of South Dakota will plow deeply and prepare the soil fit for the seed, they will have no failure with either of the abovenamed grasses. I sow 17 pounds of alfalfa seed and 20 pounds of clover seed to the acre.