Live Stock Breeders' Association. 229 



Notice from the above table that alfalfa, when fed alone, is 

 about equal to a maintenance ration, but where grain is fed with it 

 the gains are made at a very moderate cost. Large brood sows will 

 do well on alfalfa alone, but the stomach of the pig is not capable 

 of digesting large amounts of bulky food. 



Forage crops, as has already been shown, lessen the cost of 

 gains, thus making spring litters more profitable than fall litters; 

 however, by abundant and careful feeding, the sow should produce 

 two litters a year. The ration for the fall litter should be made as 

 nutritious and as palatable as possible. Feed corn, balanced with 

 shorts, gluten feed, linseed meal and milk. Skim milk for the first 

 few weeks, in getting the pigs started right, may be worth 25 to 

 30 cents per hundred pounds. If a pig is stunted on the start, he 

 will always remain so. Give them plenty of sunshine, warm, sunny 

 yards, plenty of exercise, and freshly bedded, dry sleeping quarters, 

 and, then, with not too much corn in the ration of the pig there 

 will be no trouble with the thumps or scours. If the pig is to be 

 reared for breeding purposes, then his food should always be of 

 quite a high protein content. 



At fattening time, when the pig is to be crowded, and finished 

 for the market, corn is indispensable, but should never make up the 

 entire ration. The protein feeds that may supplement corn are 

 middlings, oilmeal, tankage, and bloodmeal, depending upon the 

 prices of these feeds. These fed, with corn in amounts to balance 

 the ration, will always produce better gains and cheapen the cost 

 of production. 



The feeding period should not extend over a space of time 

 longer than six weeks, during which time the hog should consume 

 a ration equal in weight in the beginning of the fattening period 

 to 4V2 per cent, of his own weight to 3 per cent, of his weight at 

 finishing. The weight at finishing should be from 250 to 325 

 pounds. This weight has topped the market in Kansas City for 

 eleven of the last twelve years. 



The general health of the hogs depends most largely upon ju- 

 dicious, regular feeding and good sanitation. If these are given, 

 along with plenty of charcoal, salt, and ashes, a general unthrifti- 

 ness among our hogs need never be feared. As to condimental or 

 the so-called "stock foods," it is never profitable to buy them. The 

 prices paid are all out of proportion to their food value, and while 

 they may increase the number of pounds gain, they also increase 

 the cost of that pound of gain. If grain ration needs balancing 

 with a food of high protein content, then it may be provided in oil- 



