The Question Box. 157 



Question. — Can swine be profitably kept without milk? What 

 is the best food for a brood sow I 



Mr. Goodrich. — I have always fed milk, but it has been fed 

 to calves. Have never fed it to pigs. I should think, however, 

 that skim milk would be a good food for a brood sow. 



Mr. Chapman gave his methods, which consisted of a variety 

 of rations. Many flat turnips are fed, but they are well balanced. 

 Not too many are fed at first. The quantity is increased and 

 wheat middlings are added. Nothing else is fed during the win- 

 ter. In the spring they run on rye pasture, then clover; later, 

 oats and peas. This makes a largely vegetable diet. We do 

 not care to feed much milk, except when the sow is suckling her 

 young, which we never wean, but begin teaching them to cat other 

 foods as early as possible. In this way, they gradually take less 

 mothers' milk, which soon dries up. 



Question. — What would you feed to the fattening hogs, in 

 connection with corn, if you had no barley? 



Mr. Steven's.— If I did not have the barley, I should add oats 

 or some wheat middlings. I know of nothing better. But bar- 

 ley and corn make the best combination for the quality of pork 

 needed in the markets. 



Question. — What is the best breed of swine, and the proper 

 weight to be slaughtered? 



Mr. Woodward. — No one now asks for heavy, fat hogs, except 

 for lard. When we go into a meat market and buy a chop, the 

 butcher cuts off all the fat. Lean meat or " marbled meat " is 

 wanted, and the pigs must be light weights. If any money is 

 made from pigs, one must start early. The pigs must be far- 

 rowed in the spring and forced to a market weight as soon as 

 possible, but the brood sows must be properly fed and cared for 

 during the winter. They should have warm, dry, clean pens and 

 be properly fed during the gestation period. But one ought not 

 to use a razor-back breed. Get a modern pork breed. There are 

 a number, but I am not here to name any particular one. 



Question. — How do you feed your brood sows? 



Answer. — -I put 12 brood sows in the basement of a barn, last 

 fall, and fed them nine bushels of cider apples per day — three 

 bushels in the morning, three at noon, and three at night. 

 Wheat middlings were fed in connection. Every sow farrowed 

 healthy pigs and not one proved to be a cannibal. He named 

 some other foods, among them mangels, fed raw and whole. Po- 



