Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 November 1875 — Fattening Hogs. [ARTICLE]

Fattening Hogs.

No subject is of more vital interest to the farmer, just now, than this. Many are alive to the importance of early feeding, but there are many who still adhere to an old custom, and, without regard to the demands of the market, or present and prospective values, think they must feed till Christmas or New Year’s at all events. Hence they are in no hurry to commence the process of pork-making in earnest, and the very best of the season for this purpose is past before they get their hogs properly to work. Pork' is high now, und the indications are that it will be lower before the season closes. Hogs are comparatively scarce, and corn is plenty. There is an unusual quantity of immatured corn this fall, that will make pork fast enough, but is unmarketable. Under these circumstances farmers will be induced to feed late, in order to make the most of the hogs they have, and, as a consequence, the earlier marketswill be scantily supplied. All other conditions being equal, the farmer who gets his pork ready for market first makes the most money, for it is easier and cheaper to maintain a fat hog in cold weather than to make one fat. In conversation not long since with an old hand at this business, he remarked that in seasons when corn was ordinarily plenty he preferred to sell by the first of December, even at a less price than he could get at New Year’s. He very rarelyfound the difference in price to pay- for feeding a month in cold weather. To produce the most pork in the shortest time, warm, dry, clean pens and judgment in feeding arenas essential as abundance of food. We have seen hogs fattened in a mud-hole, and well fattened', too, but such pork costs too much. Besides the great waste of food, the fattening process is retarded by such unfavorable conditions, and if an account was kept with the hog-pen and corn-crib the owner would find his expenses overrunning the profits. Corn is pre-eminently the food for making pork, but it is, no doubt, fed too exclusively in many cases. Feed some less concentrated food with it—such as cooked potatoes, turnips, etc. Aconstant stuffing with corn alone induces a feverish, constipated condition, and is no doubt the cause of much of our measly and otherwise diseased, pork. Farmers, who depend upon pork for their year's supply of meat cannot be too careful in this matter. Have healthy pork, made out of clean food, or eat none at all.— Ohio Farmer. -