SWINE HOUSING AND FATTENING. 983 



ceedingly valuable to cross on selected mothers from our com- 

 mon stock. 



Next, we must give them good care. If the pig is neglected 

 and its growth checked the chances will be very much against 

 it. I have already said that the food for the first four months 

 should be such as to contribute to growth of bone and muscle, 

 rather than fat. Slop and grass, with moderate corn feeding, is 

 better than all corn. During the three months succeeding 

 weaning there is no food that will produce so good results as 

 milk, and even a small amount of it mixed with bran and corn- 

 meal will be found of great benefit. I believe also, at this period 

 of growth, that bran is worth more, pound for pound, than corn- 

 meal, and would recommend that at least two bulks of bran to 

 one of corn-meal be used. I also place a very high feeding value 

 on potatoes for this purpose. A peck of small potatoes, that can 

 be boiled on the cooking-stove while the family are at breakfast, 

 and mashed in the slop-pail, will flavor twenty gallons of slop so 

 as to make it nearly as palatable as milk ; and, if the bran and 

 meal are added at the same time as the potatoes, in a few hours 

 the mass will be found rising as though bakers' yeast had been 

 used. If mixed every morning, this slop will not be too sour 

 in the hottest weather. 



If any one objects that this is too much trouble, I have 

 only to say that success in any branch of farming is to be at- 

 tained only by care, pains, and labor, and if we can make pork 

 for one or two cents less per pound, it is profitable to do so. 



Professer E. W. Stewart, in the Rural New Yorker, writes 

 on this subject so much in accordance with my views, that I 

 quote his article entire. He says: "The science of feeding an- 

 imals is becoming much better understood, and the best feeders 

 are fast changing their ideas of the proper management of young 

 animals. It is not long since pig feeders thought a slow, early 

 growth the best for the constitution, and even the profit of the 

 feeder. This was carried to such an extent that pigs were not 

 ready for market till eighteen to twenty-four months old, and it 

 was thought desirable to reach a weight of four hundred to six 

 hundred pounds. The storing system, or suspended growth, 



