148 DISEASES OF SWINE AND OTHER ANIMALS. 



root vegetables, and add soda to the feed, or soda and milk, but give no 

 sour slop. The large, Avliite, i)ale tongue shows that the stomach and 

 blood are in acid eoiKlition and need alkalies; the contracted red tongue 

 shoAVS a subacid condition, and that acids or sour remedies are ]ieeded. 

 For years the farmers' journals have lauded clover-fields and advised 

 keeping swine upon a clover range during the entire summer, on the score 

 of economy of feed and health. As far as it goes this is good advice, 

 and yet foUoAving this adAace has been the chief cause of the s})read 

 of the contagious diseases among SAvine. Wlieu the clover range is on 

 clay soil, or the hogs ha\'e access to clay banks, and the use of rings is 

 avoided, all Avill go Avell, but if rings are used in the nose, or the soil is 

 exclusively black loam and no other food is furnished but the grass and 

 Avater, or, perhaps Avhat is worse, sour slop in addition, an acid condi- 

 tion of the blood is engendered. The hog becomes debilitated and 

 peculiarly liable to any contagious disease which may appear in the 

 vicinity. Of course farmers must keep their sAvine on grass and clover, 

 and, as a matter of economy, must use rings to prevent the clover from 

 being rooted up Avheii the range is limited, but they must at the same 

 time study the natuial habits and food of the species and supply that 

 food or its constituent elements in some form. The natural food of this 

 class is not a A^egetable diet, but they Avere designed by the Almighty 

 so that they could obtain those roots from the ground. When, there- 

 lore, they cannot obtain them, they should be furnished in kind. As a 

 rule, the constituents of all grasses and annual plants are acid — have an 

 acid reaction. Especially is this the case with. cloA^er. Eoot A^egetables 

 haA^e an alkaline reaction, and are composed largely of phosphates and 

 soda salts. In clay soils the hogs can probably supply themselves from 

 the ground with phosphates, but when confined to a black, loamy soil 

 they can obtain but little of these necessary salts from the earth. A 

 noticeable fact is, that no matter hoAv Avide the range the SAvine will 

 select the bare points to root in rather than the soft loam. Where root 

 vegetables cannot be obtained and hogs are kept on cloA^er range, soda 

 and lime or sulphate of iron should be giA'en regularly. Dry corn as 

 an exclusive diet is not a natural food for hogs, and some additions 

 should be made to the bill of fare. Tiu'uips, potatoes, or some other 

 cheap vegetable must be added to insure good health. I knoAv there is 

 a bitter feeling among many farmers against cooking or grinding corn 

 for food, on the score of extra expense and trouble, but I haA'C never yet 

 known a farmer abandon the practice Avheu once thoroughly tried. It 

 Avill pay any farmer to grind and cook the com fed to his hogs, catu if 

 that staple is Avorth but 13 cents per bushel. Practical farmers, Avho 

 have nuide the profitable feeding of hogs a study, report that one pound 

 of cooked corn-meal is equal to one and one-half pounds of raAV meal, 

 and to three of Avhole corn, in fat-producing poAA^er. One adA*antage in 

 feeding cooked feed is that root vegetables can be combined AA'ith corn- 

 meal and cookcid at the same time. AVhere raAV corn is used as a steady 

 diet sour slo]) Avill assist in its digestion, and should be giAcn regularly 

 to prcA'cnt as I'ar as i)ossible the CA'il results of error in diet. The use 

 of coal, charcoal, ashes, and rotten logs in the pen assists in keeping the 

 hogs in healtli I)y su])plying certain chemicals needed by the animals. 

 I liaA^e been thus ])arti(;ular in speaking of errors in diet because 1 be- 

 licA'e that this cause more than any other has helped to spread the fatal 

 diseases among swine. A single hog Avitli diseased stomach may be 

 the cause of imi)arting the malady to a herd, and haAing thus obtained 

 a foothold it may, unless promi)t measures are taken, spread to the Avell 



