3l6 SWINE IN AMERICA 



other feeds as well as corn, although comparatively few 

 hogs are fattened in the corn-growing regions except 

 upon ear corn, and undoubtedly the time is far off when 

 the case will be otherwise. All changes in character of 

 feed should be rather gradual, and especially is this true 

 when hogs are taken from grass or other bulky diet to 

 be fattened on a more concentrated feed. Too sudden 

 a change is sometimes attended with injurious effects, if 

 not the loss of animals outright. 



Regularity as to times of feeding and quality and 

 quantity of feed should be observed; no animal should 

 be fed so much as to be surfeited, and only so much feed 

 should be given at once as will be entirely consumed, that 

 all may come to the next meal with sharp appetites. The 

 most perfect development does not depend so much upon 

 the large quantity they can be made to consume as upon 

 the quantity they properly digest and assimilate. Next 

 to good food for the appetite a good appetite for the 

 food is desirable, and should be carefully promoted ; the 

 hog that refuses to eat, even for a single day, is set back 

 in his fattening for two or three days, and sometimes 

 much longer. The failure of a hog's appetite at any 

 time denotes something seriously wrong with him and his 

 surroundings, if not with the entire herd and its man- 

 agement. 



The quantity of feed will vary somewhat, and usually 

 in frosty and freezing weather more will be eaten to 

 maintain the animal heat than when the temperature is 

 higher and the atmosphere contains considerable mois- 

 ture. Good feeding consists in giving every particle the 



