Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1875 — Care of Swine—Economy in Food. [ARTICLE]

Care of Swine—Economy in Food.

Horses, cattle and other stock capable of subsisting on the coarser kinds of food, in most localities, may be earned through the winter in fair condition, where there is an abundance of hay, straw, etc.; but the case is different with hogs. Corn is not only a natural food but a^raos f entirely depended on in the West for the production of pork. Some of the root crops might take the place of corn to some extent, and with advantage, as an appetizer or to assist in keeping the animal* in a healthful and growing condition. But the cultivation of these is almost entirely neglected on our vast areas of cheap lands, and for the reason that the cereals can be. raised with less labor, and of course cannot now be procured to supplement the present short supply of corn on hand. Corn is better calculated to put on fat than to add to the growth of bone and muscle necessary to the thrift and healthfulness of young hogs. Why does one farmer, with a limited amount of corn, keep his hogs in a thrifty and growing condition, and at killing time bring them fully developed to the heaviest weights, while his neighbor, with better facilities and more feed, bringshis hogs to market in a dwarfed and diseased condition, light in weight, uneven in size, and ungainly in shape? Do farmers give sufficient thought to the economy of the food? No one can know how much may be gained in feeding hogs, by continii ,r >g in the common routine among .rmers of supplying them continually from first to last with nothing but dry corn, principally carbon—regardless of what is intended to be made of the pig. Though the phosphates and nitrogenous food, with healthful exercise, are just as necessary to the healthful and strong growth of the animal as carbon which makes fat, thus rendering the animal fit for the butcher. Threshed oats, wheat or rye, ground or cooked whole, supplies that which is not so largely contained in corn. Small quantities of these grains given to each animal once a day with the, corn is all that is necessary. This extra care pays, because the same amount of corn with this other feed greatly increases the amount of pork. Hogs when fattening should not have much exercise, especially after they get heavy. Indeed the same variety of food is not necessary after the hog is in full flesh, since the increase during the latter part of the fattening process is simply an increase of fat itself. Hence feeders who so successfully manage swine as ter keep the digestive organs in a vigorous condition by keeping them properly expanded with a variety of food and so they will not lose their appetites may safely and properly make corn the principal food. This is science in agriculture, and fully appreciates the subject need not look for a better fortune than exists in the corn fields of the West if the produce is manufactured into the best qualities of pork.— Western Rural.