1S89] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



697 



and they aj^ree in the main with the experience of 

 every farmer. 



To insure economy in the making of pork, it is 

 indispensable that a suitable piggery be providetl. 

 The particular manner in which this building is 

 constructed is of comparatively little consequence, 

 ii"it unites the essential requisites of such an impor- 

 tant part of the larm buildings. It should be con- 

 venient ; that is, il should be so arranged that the 

 labor of feeding the swine may be diminished as 

 much as possible. At the present time a large 

 portion of the tbod of hogs is cooked, and the ap- 

 paratus for cooking and the place of feeding should 

 be near each other. In some of the best arranged 

 piggeries, the furnaces, steamers, kettles, pumps, 

 &c. are under the same roof with the pig stye, and 

 the labor of feeding ten or twenty porkers for eight 

 or ten weeks is materially diminished from what 

 it would be where the cooking is performed in the 

 upen air, and at a distance from the pen. The 

 pen far thfe animals should be so arranged that it 

 can be readily cleaned and kept dry, and in cold 

 weather a bed of straw or lilter should be furnished, 

 as no hog can fat well unless he is kept warm and 

 comfortable. Too great a degree of warmth, or 

 too great a degree of cold, seem alike unfavorable 

 to making pork ; hence the fall and the spring 

 months are better for this purpose than the summer 

 or winter ones ; though in a cool or shaded situa- 

 tion, and on a bare fioor, hogs will take on fat as 

 rapidly during the warm months as at any other 

 time. The troughs lor feeding must be secured by 

 stanchells, or by pins crossing their upper surflace 

 in such a way that all the pigs may obtain their 

 share, and not allow a cross domineering porker 

 to place himself lengthwise in the trough, or run 

 his nose at will from end to end, to the utter dis- 

 comfiture of the more peaceably inclined. A lid 

 to the trough should be prepared and hung in such 



not take on fat or be as healthy, as one kept as a 

 svyine should be. 



According to an article in the British Husbandry, 

 a system has been adopted by some of those most 

 extensively engaged in the pork business which 

 appears to be agreat improvement on the old 

 method. The styes are built in divisions, each to 

 contain a pig, and to fit him as near as may be. 

 At one end ol' this bell is the trough, at the other 

 a slidinL": door thai shuts in the pig. No litter of 

 any kind is permitted, as the stalls are on an in- 

 clined i)lane, and cleaned out every day. Holes 

 are bored in the floor to allow all moisture to escape. 

 Some have carried the system so (iir as not to al- 

 low the width of the stallio be sufficient for the 

 hog to turn in, but whether standing or lying, he 

 always remains with his head to the trough. The 

 advantages of this mode are supposed to be, that 

 the hog keeps more quiet ; has a clean dry stye, 

 is sure of a sufficient supply of food without fight- 

 ing for it; and as a necessary consequence ftit- 

 tens much faster. Suppositions which have been 

 justified bythe result of many experiments. 



As to the kind of food best adapted to making 

 pork there can be but one opinion where Indian 

 corn is grown. Fed to the swine in the ear, 

 ground or cooked, it is alike superior to all other 

 kinds of (bod for making pork of the best quality. 

 Various experiments have been made in preparing 

 corn for food. By grinding the cob with the 

 corn a great saving was effected in the quantify of 

 o-rain used, though the fat did not seem to be taken 

 on quite so rapidly as when fed on pure meal. 

 Cooking the corn, or makins: it into pudding is 

 probably the best way in which it can be fed, as 

 it is certainly the most economical ; giving the 

 bulk necessary for the proper distention of the 

 stomach, with a better development of the nutritive 

 matter than can be obtained in any other way. 

 Making the meal into a mash, with milk or whey, 

 is also a good method of preparing it. In this 

 case it is the better if soured before feeding. 



Where corn cannot be grown, the most valuable 

 kinds of food are peas and barley. In England 

 where corn is unknown, the process of fatting is 

 usually conducted as follows. " In order to har- 



a way that the pigs can be shut from the trough, den the flesh, and render it of that mellow firm- 



until the food is put in and properly distributed ; a 

 thing easily done, and wlaich will prevent a vast 

 deal of squealing and fighting. A farmer should 

 know that it does not sound well, or bespeak, good 

 management, to have his pigs make such a clam- 

 or every time he is about to feed them, as to make 

 all the neighborhood acquainted with the important 

 fact. The size of the piggery will of course depend 

 on the number of animals it is intended to fatten ; 

 as a general rule about two feet of trough should 

 be allowed to each animal, though a much less 

 space may be made to suffice ; especially, if the 

 precaution of dividing the trough into sections has 

 been adop'ed. Where it is intended to feed a 

 large number, the space or building for the fixtures, 

 (steamers, kettles, &c.) may be made the centre, 

 and the styes arranged around it, so as to make 

 the management ofihe whole easy. The slovenly 

 manner in which some persons keep their swine, 

 and the disgusting state of their piggeries, especi- 

 ally since the practice of feeding the animals on 

 steamed food has become common, is truly dis- 

 graceful, and forms a serious drawback on the profits 

 of feeding, as it is clear that a hog so t,-eated will 

 Yoi,. VII-88 



ness so essential to fine pork or bacon, some peo- 

 ple commence with about two thirds of steamed 

 potatoes, and one third of peas and barley ground 

 in equal proportions into meal, enlarging the quan- 

 tity of meal as the animal grows fat, by which 

 means it is said that a quick feeder will in twelve 

 weeks consume from 14 to 16 bushels of the grain, 

 and will probably double his weight. One bushel 

 of peas to four of oats, or four of barley, or three 

 or four bushels of potatoes, with two bushels of 

 ground oats and barley boiled, are also considered 

 good mixtures ; but nothing in this country is equal 

 to barley rheal and white peas— the peas being 

 given whole, and the meal made into a mash 

 with skimmed milk." (See 'Brit. Husbandry') 

 In this country some good farmers consider a 

 mixture of oats in the proportion of one bushel of 

 oats to three or four of corn, so essential, that we 

 have heard them assert that rather than not have 

 the oats for the mixture, they would exchange 

 corn for that grain, bushel for bushel. 



For several years past a large proportion of the 

 pork in the northern states, has been mostly made 

 from apples or potatoes, or from a rpixture of these, 



