A PLACE FOR THE PIG ON THE FARM. JJ 



careful about feeding the mother heavily, for the first few days. 

 She should be fed lightly at first, and the feed increased as the 

 pigs grow. For the first twenty-four hours I do not feed her 

 anything; then I give her a small quantity of thin slop, made 

 largely of wheat middlings. Barley meal or oat meal would be 

 all right. After the pigs are three or four weeks old we find 

 that they draw very heavily upon their mother, in fact, the 

 mother does not give them sufficient nourishment, and we have 

 to feed them. We find that milk is the very best thing we can 

 give them, and that is why the pig and the dairy cow go so well 

 together. We have our cows fresh in the fall and give the milk 

 to the calves in the winter, and by the time the pigs are three or 

 four weeks old the calves are turned out and we have the milk 

 for the pigs. We feed them very little at first, being very careful 

 not to give them too much. The milk is warmed and is given 

 to them sweet. You should guard against giving pigs sour 

 swill. It may not kill them, but they will do better on sweet 

 swill. After a little we find that the appetites of our pigs 

 increase very much faster than our milk, and to make the milk 

 hold out we use wheat middlings. We mix this with water, in 

 a vessel by itself, and let it soak from one feed to another, and 

 to prevent souring we add the milk at the time we feed it. We 

 do not feed the sows any corn until the pigs are three or four 

 weeks old ; then we find it is necessary to give them some corn 

 or they will depreciate in flesh. 



So far I have been speaking of grain feeds, but I am to tell 

 vou how you can grow pigs healthfully and cheaply. For health- 

 ful feeds, there is nothing equal to a pasture. That is where I 

 failed in my first venture in raising pigs, and that is where you 

 are making a mistake in raising pigs. You are keeping them 

 shut up in pens where you would not think of keeping any other 

 animal. You cannot make pig raising profitable in that way. 

 You should give the pigs just as good care as you do the family 

 horse or dairy cow. How many farmers clean out the pig pen 

 every day and put in fresh bedding? I will venture to say that 

 if there is a man who does that he is making money. We have 

 not a pig pen on our farm and I intend there shall never be one. 

 They have a comfortable barn where they sleep and are always 

 at pasture, winter or summer. Of course in cold weather they 

 do not s:o out and eat all day, but there is hardlv a dav in winter 



