FEEDING OF HOGS. 651 



" Clover is supposed to be the best, but timothy is doubtless 

 equally good. Blue-grass does well when better is not to be had ; 

 even a field of weeds is better than no pasture, as many varieties of 

 weeds are excellent feed. 



" When a sufficient range of pasture cannot be had, soiling 

 does well. Clover or timothy, cut when green and fresh, is the 

 next best feed to a good range of pasture. 



" As soon as the grass starts in the spring, the hogs should be 

 turned in, as they like ' it best when the grass is short and tender. 

 They will subsist and grow well on grass alone, with a little salt 

 occasionally. Some prefer to feed a little corn daily; it may or may 

 not be the best policy ; they will be farther advanced for fattening, 

 but will not fatten as well as if none were fed during the summer, 

 and with good pasture, water and shade, they will give good results. 

 They will not fatten on grass, but it prepares them for fattening. 

 Their systems are in a healthy state. They have no ulcerated livers 

 or stomachs as they will have if fed on corn through the hot 

 weather. 



The Proper Process for Successful Fattening- 

 " Thus they are prepared by the first of September to commence the 

 fattening process with sound teeth, good digestion and vigorous 

 health. They will after that time promptly pay for all the food 

 judiciously given. It may be, and doubtless is true, that a light 

 feed of bran or light provender might be fed with profit during the 

 summer, but it is doubtful if corn in any quantity is beneficial. 

 Feeding on corn alone during the summer, except it be to send them 

 to a summer market is baa policy; they become unhealthy, teeth 

 sore, appetite clogged, and will not feed satisfactorily in the fall, and 

 the comparison of expense in grass and corn feeding may be drawn 

 as to which is the best policy. The cost of grass feeding, even with 

 other light food, is merely nominal, while a nog red with corn from 

 the time it is weaned till butchered at eighteen months old will not, 

 as a rule, pay expenses. 



" The chief end of a hog is the weight and quality of his car- 

 cass. His value depends upon his being well fattened, and the 

 object aimed at during his whole life is to prepare him for that 

 event. If he fails in that, his life is a failure. Corn is the proper 

 food for fattening, but not for growth. The fattening process is 

 always to some extent a disease-producing process, and if long con- 

 tinued always so. But when the animal commences fattening in 

 vigorous health, having lived for months on green vegetable and 

 lignt food, his health will remain firm through any reasonable time 

 required to become fat. But if fed uninterruptedly on heavy, hearty, 

 dry food all his life, his health, if not already destroyed, is injured, 

 and will yield to such unnatural living before there is time to 

 fatten. * 



" The fattening process should be completed as soon as possible 

 (and before disease supervenes) both for economy and to insure a 



