46 FORTY YEARS' EXPERIENCE OF A PRACTICAL HOG MAN 



is composed of ground rock phosphate which we buy for use on our 

 land, and to this we add finely ground limestone ; to give it a flavor 

 and a relish, also mix in some salt, and often add to this slacked 

 lime, thoroughly mixed; these ingredients form a very desirable 

 mineral feeding preparation. 



In carrying the pigs along from weaning time to maturity, too 

 many should not be allowed to herd together especially is this 

 true if they are of various sizes and ages. Where they must run 

 together in large numbers and various sizes, there should be a sep- 

 arate feeding place with a graduated creep where small pigs can 

 pass through and eat by themselves, unmolested by the larger ones. 

 There is no surer way of getting a bunch of runts on the farm 

 than by allowing all sizes to eat in the same feeding yard. 



A creep of from 12 to 16 feet long can be made between panels 

 of a fence dividing the feed yard where large numbers are fed. 

 These spaces should be made of rollers with a piece of iron in each 

 end standing upright and set into a two by six or other size timber 

 just wide enough apart, so that smaller pigs can pass through with- 

 out injury. 



Pigs carried along in this way and fed and attended to in the 

 above manner should make rapid growth and development, and if 

 desired to be kept for breeders, this same treatment can be carried 

 on during the first year. If it is planned to put them on an early 

 market, and at a weight of from 200 to 250 pounds, the ration can 

 be somewhat changed for the last sixty days by using more corn 

 and a little less of the other kinds of feed. 



Probably better weights can be made and much more econom- 

 ically with ninety per cent, corn and ten per cent, tankage. This 

 ration, by actual use, put a car of hogs on the market that topped 

 the market, and showed by records to have been made at a less 

 cost than those that were fed corn alone. It is a well-known 

 fact that the first one hundred pounds of growth of any hog is 

 made at a much less expense than any other subsequent one 

 hundred pounds. So it is economy to feed all the good feed that 

 can be properly digested from birth to maturity. 



There are feeders, and always have been, and probably always 

 will be, who pay little attention to their pigs during the growing 

 period of the first six months, believing that if they are turned 

 out into any old pasture and can get water to drink, that they 

 can grow a frame and some size at little or no cost. This may 

 do for the careless farmer, who does not wish to give any time to 

 his crop of pigs, expecting to do it all after they have lived long 

 enough to develop some frame, which is in some way to be covered 

 up and rounded out with an all-corn ration thrown out to them in 

 any kind of a yard, in any season, expecting them to make pork at 

 small expense and little time given to their care. This may be sat- 

 isfactory to that class of men, but it has always been our plan and 

 belief that the mother's milk fat of the little pig should never be 

 lost, but be increased by liberal and proper rations during its 

 entire life. 



