556 Feeds and Feeding. 



910. Exercise for young pigs. Well-nurtured young pigs often 

 become excessively fat, and may die unless abundant exercise is 

 provided. If sufficient exercise cannot be given, the danger can 

 usually be averted by reducing the feed supply, tho this checks 

 growth. In the absence of more natural exercise the herdsman 

 should turn the pigs out of doors two or three times a day and 

 drive them about the yard. Selle 1 describes a means of exercise 

 for winter pigs as follows: Wagon loads of sods are placed in the 

 cellar in the fall, and in winter these, along with bits of meat scrap 

 or cracklings, are thrown into the pens. In searching for the 

 cracklings the pigs get exercise as well as some feed. On weaning, 

 pigs of the same size should be placed in groups of not over 20. 

 Where large numbers of pigs of varying sizes range together, the 

 weaker ones are at a disadvantage at the feed trough and are liable 

 to permanent injury from lack of feed and rough treatment. 



911. Shotes. In summer shotes should range the pastures, get- 

 ting part of their nourishment from succulent alfalfa, clover, vetch, 

 or rape, or, if nothing better is at hand, from the grasses. Green 

 herbage of the proper kind will a little more than maintain the 

 animal, leaving available for growth all the feed supplied. Canada 

 peas, cowpeas, soybeans, peanuts, wheat middlings, and all the com- 

 mon grains may be successfully employed in supplementing the pas- 

 ture. To force shotes to forage the fields for their entire feed is 

 unwise and expensive. They should gain from half to three-fourths 

 pound per day, and sufficient concentrates to produce this gain 

 should be fed. (815) 



In winter shotes should be liberally fed the finer parts of some 

 legume hay, such as alfalfa or clover, and roots. These are not only 

 the cheapest of feeds so far as they can be used, but they are helpful 

 in developing a roomy digestive tract capable of utilizing a large 

 amount of feed when the fattening period arrives. (894-903) Leg- 

 ume hay also furnishes nitrogenous matter and lime, both essen- 

 tials with these animals. But roughage alone is not sufficient for 

 the growing pig, and therefore such coarse feed should be supple- 

 mented with a reasonable supply of rich concentrates containing 

 but little woody fiber. Corn, barley, kafir, milo, and the other 

 cereal grains should be given to furnish heat and lay on fat, while 

 a supply of skim milk, wheat middlings, soybeans, and other nitroge- 

 nous feeds will furnish the protein for muscle building. 



1 Wis. Farmers ' Inst., Bui. 1894. 



