268 J<-> DAVIESS COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 



negligence, or want of experience in their management, not 

 knowing liow to supply their wants. No other animal has so 

 many wants, or craves such a variety of food. Hogs go for 

 vegetable and animal food alike ; they will live on grass or 

 clover hay, and I am satisfied that a variety of feed is abso- 

 lutely necessary for their health and well-being. Corn is the 

 cheapest feed, and should be made the largest part of it. We 

 are apt to think if they have it by them constantly, with plenty 

 of water, and a little salt, we have done all that is necessary to 

 make them fatten rapidly. But you give those hogs a bucket 

 of ashes, and see how quickly they will get outside of it ; then a 

 bucket of dry bran, and see with what relish they will gobble 

 it up. The next day give them a bucket of oats ; the next a 

 few potatoes ; thus changing from day to day, and my word for 

 it, you will see no slab-sided, drawn-up porkers, trying to hide 

 themselves under a bunch of straw, waiting for the last call. 

 With a variety of food, changed every day, with clean beds 

 made up with plenty of straw, and not too many in a pen, you 

 ri^ed have no fear of cholera, nor will you have any occasion to 

 buy bogus medicine. I speak from experience. This year I 

 have sold one hundred and fourteen hogs (fat), and have thirty- 

 five more ready to sell, and twenty-three young sows that will 

 weigh over two hundred pounds, which I have bred for my next 

 year's supply. 



I keep no old sows, breed altogether from young ones, 

 commencing to breed them about the tenth of December, that 

 they may come in the latter part of March and first of April. 

 When the pigs are old enough to wean, I give them a clover 

 pasture, in which tliey get plenty of exercise. They want dry, 

 comfortable beds, but it is best to keep them out during the day, 

 if the weather is fine. I feed corn and oats ground, equal 

 parts, with a little bran, which is put in barrels and soaked for 

 twelve hours. I feed twice a day only. The sows are fat 

 when the pigs are weaned, and are turned out to pasture with 

 other stock hogs. Tliey get no corn until the crop ripens in 

 the Fall, when tliey are pushed until ready for market. Thus^ 

 handled they make cheap pork. 



