Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 August 1875 — The Food of Swine. [ARTICLE]

The Food of Swine.

If there is any one thing in rural practice which needs reforming more than another it is the manner of raising and feeding swine. From the time they are large -enough to eat they are offered all manner of refuse about the place, such as rank weeds, filthy slops, spoiled vegetables and meats, dead fowls, etc. They are allowed to rummage the dungyard and glean the refuse of food in the faeces of cattle and horses, on the ground of economy. But we imagine that the quantity of food saved in this way is very insignificant—not to exceed the value of a bushel of shelled corn a year among the whole stock on an ordinary-sized farm. The objections to the practice of keeping swine in this way are so serious, however, that the reasons in favor of it have no force at all. The origin of trichinosis in swine may be always traced to the consumption of vile stuffs in their food or to being housed and yarded amidst filth and foul air. Every few months the press announces a case of trichinae in an individual or a whole family, with all the horrible details and sufferings which attend the parasitic attack. Only lately some new cases are reported here in the West which are alarming. We are quite sure that every farmer, and every one who feeds and fattens a pig, will only need to have their attention called to so important and serious a matter to secure a complete reform in the practice of feeding an animal which will take whatever is offered to it and will live in the most filthy holes and yards. On the the swine should have clover pasture, and for swill only milk and corn meal, no dish-water or* meat scraps from the table, as these are sure to putrify and poison the mass in the barrel or tank: Pure water with a little meal added is preferable. The dishwater may go to the compost heap and the scraps from the table to the poultry while they are fresh. Spoiled meats should be buried or mixed with composted materials; they should never he given to any domestic animal. Large numbers of swine are frequently confined in small quarters, with very little regard to cleanliness /)r pure air. Of course, some of them will lose the jirst sign of derangement of the organs of nutrition and assimilation. They do not thrive, but they are kept along till slaughtering-time and are dressed And packed among the lot. Such animals are extremely liable to be infested with trichinae and other parasites, and those who consume them as food expose themselves to sickness, diseases of a lingering nature and to death in & most horrible form. Interests, therefore, as dear as health and life require a thorough reform in keeping and feeding swine. Let their food be as Eure as that which other animals consume. et them be kept in clean quarters and have pure air. Let diseased or unthrifty animals be separated from those in health, and we may have no fear of trichinosis among either swine or human beings.— Detroit Tribune. , • —The Leavenworth (Kan.) people are afflicted with flying snakes that crawl through the air four feet above the ground. They are little things about a foot long, spotted, with flappers as large as a man’s hand. -r-Leather thoroughly saturated with glycerine will prevent, it is said, the passage of gases. (