SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 655 



WATER FOR HOGS. 



breeders' gazette.. 



Some years ago an entirely unexpected circumstance threw into my 

 care a number of pure-bred swine. They were a lot of outstanding good 

 gilts. They were all about ten months of age, heavy with pig and of an 

 average weight of nearly 300 pounds. It is needless to say that I was 

 proud of my hogs, exceedingly so; in fact, my associates may have said 

 disagreeably so. They came to me from the hands of their foreign-bred 

 ow5^3r, one who was both ignorant and illiterate. Improvement was my 

 plan. The hogs were good but I would make them better. The first 

 improvement attempted was to reduce them a bit in condition, for they 

 seemed too fat for successful farrowing. This was one of my first mis- 

 takes, but one of my least. For awhile an animal may be overfat for 

 maternity. It is a great mistake to starve both mother and young in an 

 attempt to reduce the condition just as parturition approaches. 



To reduce the flesh the feed allowance was cut down almost to 

 nothing. The rufi of a 40-acre field was allowed for exercise, but the 

 results were disheartening. It really seemed as if those heavy pregnant 

 sows could lay in their nests and fatten on sleep. Exercise they would 

 not take. The alimentary canal long accustomed to a full ration did not 

 at once contract and accustom itself properly to handle a half or quarter 

 ration. Food instead of passing quickly through was retained until the 

 measure was full. The consequence of starvation and constipation were 

 sluggishness, a disinclination for exercise and at farrowing time dead 

 pigs. 



From litters of eight or ten an average of about four pigs was raised. 

 Four pigs on a 300-pound sow in the hands of a professional feeder, one 

 who could formulate a balanced ration, who was alive to the' value of oil 

 meal, grass, packing house products and various other porcine matters, 

 constituted a foundation on which were erected many an air castle. But 

 I marketed those pigs when eight months of age, and the average weight 

 was around 175 pounds. Clearly I did not know as much as the dutch- 

 man who did not know anything. 



It was nearly a year later that I first met the original owner. To him 

 I told my tale of woe. This was his receipt given in the King's English: 

 "I tell you it is all in the water; yes, maybe some places hogs do not 

 need so much water, but here ours do. We feed so much corn you know. 

 You know corn heats them up so much they cannot grow. A hot hog 

 cannot grow. I keep water where my hogs can get it all the time. Then 

 I keep salt before them all the time to make them drink more water. 

 But that is not half enough water. Then I take good -nice middlings and 

 i stir a little of it in a barrel of water. In winter I warm the water 

 some so I can get them to drink lots of it. Then I like to feed them 

 soaked feed or cooked feed; I do not care what it is just so it has lotsi 

 of water soaked or cooked into it. I tell you if you want to see your- 



