200 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



wife that the old sow is crazy, and that she is trying to eat 

 up every pig there is in the pen ; for when the little fellows 

 go near her she rises right up in anger and drives them 

 away. Constipation and fever have set in. The young 

 animals are not able to take care of the abundance of milk 

 that has been produced from the large amount of food, and 

 milk-fever is the result. The best treatment for milk-fever 

 is to kneel right down at her side, take a bucket of hot 

 water, and bathe the udder for at least half an hour ; then 

 take some turpentine or coal oil and rub it gently, but 

 beware of getting it on her teats. Give her a loosening 

 food or some salts. 



The sow should be fed nothing immediately after farrowing 

 but some warm water and a handful of shorts or meal in it ; 

 not corn meal, but bran or shorts. I would increase that 

 feed from day to day until the ninth day, when you will 

 find that the pigs are able to take care of the abundance of 

 milk ; and then the sow should have all the food that she will 

 eat up clean, and no more, three times a day. I am an 

 intense feeder and an intense breeder, and I want the animal 

 to consume every ounce of food that it can digest, and no 

 more ; and the feeder of swine, as long as he is not feeding 

 in this direction, is losing ground. 



Governor Rusk sent a page into Superintendent Morrison's 

 office one morning, with a message that he wanted to see 

 me. When I went into the governor's office he looked 

 me right in the face, as he is accustomed to do, and said, 

 " "Well, sir, what are you talking about at the institutes?" 

 Says I, " Hogs, governor." " Hogs," said he ; "can't every 

 man raise hogs?" "Yes, sir." ""Well," says he, "what 

 kind of instruction are you giving?" Says I, "Governor, 

 in the State of "Wisconsin we have, according to the statis- 

 tics, one million and a half of hogs. One million of those 

 hogs are wintered and sold at the age of eighteen or twenty 

 months ; the other half-million are fed from the time they are 

 born until they go to the block at eight or ten months old." 

 " "Well, what about it?" "The food of support, governor, 

 of these wintered hogs is at least three pounds a day, with- 

 out any growth. It costs at least three dollars to sustain 

 the life of each hog during the winter months, or a total to 



