SWINE. 391 



therefore cooking food on a small scale will usually be limited to those small farmers who 

 have warm pens for their hogs and who fatten them in winter, when time and labor are not 

 taken into account. 



A well known agricultural writer puts it thus: &quot;If ten pigs are fed 100 days upon 7 

 pounds of corn-meal each, per day whole amount, 7,000 pounds, or 125 bushels and if 

 we suppose that cooking will give five pounds more to the bushel, or 625 pounds of live 

 pork, and this is worth five cents per pound, the feeder will receive $31.25 for the expense of 

 cooking. It is for the farmer to determine whether he could afford to perform this labor for 

 31^ cents per day. But if he has 100 hogs to feed, he will receive $312.50 for the 100 days, 

 or $3.12 per day. It is easy to see that the latter will pay. 



In our plan of cooking, we exclude all attempts to feed cooked food in troughs in the 

 open air in cold weather. Nothing but failure can be expected of such attempts. The food 

 will be hot or frozen. Great changes in the temperature of the food is not relished, and food 

 in a semi-liquid state is to be avoided when the temperature is much below 60 F. If hogs 

 are to be fed in the open air, in winter, it should be with dry food. Corn, then, will do 

 best in its natural state; but if the weather is cold, as we have seen, it will require liberal 

 feeding to produce any gain. 



In rearing young pigs in winter, some arrangement for cooking will be quite essential to 

 rapid growth. In preparing slops for the brood sows, to cause a generous flow of milk, cook 

 ing will be required. Facility for cooking will enable the feeder always to give a greater 

 variety in the diet of young pigs, as well as fattening hogs. In cooking, everything may be 

 used to advantage. Pumpkins, potatoes, carrots, beets, turnips, cabbages, short-cut clover, 

 oil-meal, wheat-middlings each or all may be cooked with the corn or corn-meal, making a 

 savory mess, greatly relished by pigs or fattening hogs.&quot; 



Grreen Food for Hogs. In the summer feeding for pork, it is well to permit hogs 

 to have access to green food. Pigs after being weaned may be given the freedom of a clover 

 pasture, and thrive well, when allowed in the same connection also, all the milk and slops 

 they will eat, together with cooked corn-meal. Mature hogs will do well on clover and corn, 

 without slops, but should always be permitted free access to a plenty of pure water. Pigs 

 are excellent scavengers, and will effectually root out and destroy the May beetle and other 

 insect pests from portions in which they run. They will also eat such reptiles as snakes, 

 frogs, etc., when they can have access to them. Hogs are very fond of blue grass, orchard 

 grass, red and white clover, alfalfa, pig weed (amarantJi), purslane (portulacca), and other 

 succulent plants; also most of the common pasture grasses. 



The field pea, cut just as the peas mature, is excellent for hogs. Sweet corn stalks cut 

 as soon as they are silked; amber cane and sorghum cut after becoming well headed make 

 also a valuable green food. Such stalks are sweet and tender, and the hogs will eat them up 

 clean. Corn for soiling hogs should be planted in drills from two to three feet apart, and 

 sufficiently thick to have the stalks from two to three inches apart. Hogs will always thrive 

 best when permitted to have some green food, and can have access to the ground; in fact, 

 they will not be long healthy without it. 



Salt. Hogs should have a little salt daily, or at least once a week, as it aids in pro 

 moting health, and gives a good tone to the stomach. They should also have access to ashes 

 and charcoal occasionally. Animals that are to be used as human food, should be kept in as 

 healthy a condition as possible, not only in respect to the kind and amount of food given, but 

 in maintaining the best sanitary conditions by which they are surrounded. 



Pure Water for Hogs. Hogs should always be supplied with an abundance of 

 pure water; this they require as well as any other animal, in order to be healthy. Some 

 farmers seem to have the idea that hogs are exceedingly filthy animals, consequently that 



