648 FEEDING OF HOGS. 



be given by occasionally brining the feed of hay or stalks. In this 

 case the fodder should be thoroughly wetted with brine, and left till 

 the next day before giving, so that the saline matter may be absorbed 

 by the straw. 



Water Indispensable Abundance of pure water is indis- 

 pensable. If the sheep have not constant access to a running brook 

 or spring, they should be watered plentifully at least once a day. 

 This cannot be neglected without injury. 



FEEDING OF HOGS. 



Unlike the horse from which we get both reproduction and 

 labor, the cow which gives us both milk and beef, or the sheep 

 which yields both wool and mutton, the hog has but one object in 

 his existence, which is, pork. He is bred and fed entirely for the 

 food product that he may afford. The raising of hogs is however a 

 very important branch of agricultural production, and has of late 

 years been awarded more attention than formerly, and with corre- 

 spondingly good results, experience showing that the profit of 

 breeding and feeding is almost entirely dependent upon systematic 

 and intelligent government of the kinds of food used, and the 

 method of using them. 



Hog Feeding of Benefit to the Soil As with most 

 other kinds of domestic animals, too little consideration is com- 

 monly given to returns which the farmer receives in the recupera- 

 tion of nis soil from the feeding of hogs. It ought scarcely to need 

 repetition that good results cannot be expected from land which is 

 not supplied with the materials which it requires for the reparative 

 processes of nature, which are quite as essential to the soil as to the 

 animal structure. Land which is not properly and systematically 

 nourished will wear out and become exhausted and barren with as 

 much mathematical precision as will the animal which is put to 

 hard work without adequate feed. In considering the cost of any 

 kind of stock-breeding, therefore, we should credit the expense of 

 feeding with the actual and definite value which is returned to the 

 soil in nutritive material in the shape of manure. 



Value of Hog Offal as Manure The following table 

 will be found both interesting and valuable in -this connection, 

 showing definitely the relative value of the manure resulting from 

 a ton each of various kinds of food. 



By reference to this table, it will not be difficult to form an 

 approximately correct estimate of the value of manure from a given 

 lot of hoors, provided the amount and kind of food consumed are 

 known. Thus, if a hog is fed exclusively on corn from the time it is 

 weaned till it weighs 350 fts., it will have consumed about 1,500 

 Ibs. of corn, the manure from which is worth, at $6.65 a ton, $4.99. 

 Hence we rightly deduce that for every hundred weight of pork, 



