Feeding Farm Animals 209 



Keeping Pumpkins, 



IVhat is the best ivay of storing pumpkins, under ordinary farm 

 conditions, in a climate such as ivc have here in northern California? I 

 have no facilities for cold storage. 



All you have to do in this climate to keep pumpkins is to keep 

 them out of reach of the stock. They do not need storage of any 

 kind, but will keep in good condition during the late autumn and 

 winter months in any open-air place where they may be convenient 

 for feeding purposes. In parts of California where there is hard 

 ground freezing, protection must be given by covering with boards 

 or straw or any other material available. We have no need for root 

 cellars or cold storage, for our winter temperatures are neither high 

 nor low enough to hurt them. 



Grape Pomace as Hog Feed. 



What is the value of grape pomace as a hog feed? 



It has been sold for 50 cents a ton as it comes from the press 

 at the winery and when a person has not got any surplus of other 

 feeds, it is evidently worth that and then some. The only way to 

 feed it is to put it up in a big pile and let the hogs take it as they 

 want it. It will help keep them growing through the winter pro- 

 vided they have other feed with it that might not be sufficient with- 

 out the pomace. 



Proper Feeding of Young Pigs, 



If I put two 50-pound shoats to an acre of barley that zuill yield 

 10 or 12 sacks of grain, how many months could they be kept there to 

 advantage, and what gain could I expect them to make in that time? 



If the pigs have been properly fed and were of good stock, they 

 should have attained a weight of 50 pounds at three or four months 

 of age. Pigs in this condition would be more likely to lose than 

 gain turned on a dry barley field, even if the yield were double what 

 you state. Barley is an excellent fattener for mature hogs, but is a 

 poor food for young growing pigs. Young pigs should have a 

 balanced ration, which may be defined as a little of almost all kinds 

 of feed and not all of any one kind. We have pigs running on a 

 barley field such as you describe, and in addition to the barley we 

 feed them once a day a slop composed of wheat middling and bran 

 in equal parts by measurement, to which we add about 8 per cent 

 tankage, and they seem to be moving along nicely. Without the 

 slop we don't think they would hold their own. — Chas. Goodman. 



Pie-melons and Pigs. 



/ have 14 sows which ivcre fed almost entirely on pie-melons and 

 milk, not much of the latter. Out of the 14, only j sows have saved any 

 pigs; the rest lost all the young they had. Four or five sows that for 

 the last three weeks have had no melons, nothing but green grass and 

 a little whole barley each day, are saving their pigs all right. 



