CHAPTER IV. 

 THE FEEDING AND SHELTERING OF SWINE. 



I. FEED THE BREEDERS FOR HEALTH.- — — II. THE PROPER FOOD FOR SWINE. 



III. SUMMER FEEDING FOR PORK. IV. GRASSES AND CLOVERS. V. ROOTS. 



VI. GRAIN THE MAIN RELIANCE. VII. FEEDING IN THE FIELDS. VIII. 



GLEANING IN THE FIELDS AND AFTER CATTLE. IX. VALUE OF MAST FOR 



HOGS. X. HOG-FEEDING IN THE SOUTH. XL FEEDING IN CLOSE PENS. 



XIL HOG- BARNS. XIIL THE BEST FORM OF HOG BARN. XIV. COMPARATIVE 



VALUE OF LIGHT AND HEAVY HOGS. XV. ECONOMY OF FULL FEEDING FROM 



BIRTH. XVL MIXED RATIONS FOR HOGS. XVII. GRAIN SHOULD BE GROUND. 



XVIIL WET FEED BETTER THAN DRY. XIX. COOKING FOOD. XX. FEED- 

 ING POTATOES. XXL PUMPKINS FOR HOGS. XXIL CONCLUSION. 



I. Peed the Breeders for Health. 



The only profit that can accrue from the care and management of swine 

 lies in the vahie of their flesh as food, and in the offal for grease and in 

 the arts. Hence the greatest profit — except in rare cases, where they 

 have an unlimited forest range — lies in forcing their feeding to fatness, 

 from birth until they are slaughtered. True economy will dictate that 

 they have the warmest possible shelter in winter, and that they be 

 kept cool in summer, with some place where they may escape from in- 

 sect enemies, and with range suflScient for them to exercise their instinct 

 of rooting for such underground vegetation as their natures may require. 

 This promotes health and strengthens their constitutions. 



The above applies especially to the breeding stock. Those animals 

 which are intended for fattening — and whose lives should not extend be- 

 yond fifteen months at most — do not require all this. If the breeding 

 stock have been kept healthy they will transmit health to their offspring. 

 I lielieve that the purely artificial breeding and feeding of breeding stock, 

 the indiscriminate ringing, the absence of roots, and the feeding of breedino- 

 animals almost exclusively on corn, have, in many cases, so enfeebled the 

 constitution of swine that they have Ijecome an easy pre}'- to the various epi- 

 demic and contagious diseases that, of late years, have carried off so 

 many. And I believe, also, that the utmost care will be necessary in the fu- 

 ture to guard against this disability. And any common-sense man may see 

 that the breeding animals are so few in proportion to the slaughtering 

 swine, that it is true economy for every breeder to spare no pains in pro- 

 viding for this class of stock diversified food Avhich they crave, and which, 

 is necessary to make sound and vigorous constitutions. 



Remember that swine — like man — are universal feeders, and that if 

 allowed to be so, few animals are more cleanly in their habits. They wal- 



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