410 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Williams. I have two sows which had pigs in November. Cold weather 

 came on, and they got constipated. I fed them one-half pumpkin every day, cooked, 

 and they done well. I believe that hogs kept through the winter should have 

 pumpkins. It is one of the best health producers we have, either cooked or raw. 



Mr. Reveal. I have no criticism to offer on Mr. Barker's remarks. Mr. Barker 

 advocated in his address feeding the cheaper food for making pork for profit. I 

 would ask if those pumpkins would not have been more beneficial cooked. Is it 

 not economy to feed some cooked food ? I am inclined to think it is. 



Mr. Mustard. I have been experimenting some with pumpkins. They are one 

 of the best things to feed to swine there is. They relish them, and they keep the 

 bowels in good condition, besides they are a cheap article of diet. We can grow a 

 large crop on an acre of ground. I intend to feed more hereafter than I have 

 done. They are good to feed to brood kows. You never see a sick hog if its bowels 

 are in good condition ; if sick, their droppings are not natural, but constipated. 



Mr. Beeler. 1 would add my testimony to the benefit of pumpkins. They are 

 of great advantage in the feeding of swine, and also good for cattle in the fall, 

 preventing constipation. They are easily raised. A very good way to plant, is 

 every seventh corn row, the space betwen the rows giving room for them to vine. 

 As to cooking, I have never had any experience with that. However, I think it 

 wonld be attended with considerable loss, as they are quite bulky, and would re- 

 quire much handling. 



Mr. Mustard. Do you leave out the row of corn? 



Mr. Beeler. Yes, sir ; I leave it out entirely. I can not raise pumpkins in 

 among the corn, very well. 



Mr. Cook: I always cook my pumpkins. After the corn becomes dry feeding, 

 I want to know if Mr. Barker fed his hogs all the pumpkins they would eat. 



3Ir. Barker. I aim for my hogs to eat their feed up clean. If I throw out corn 

 first and then pumpkins, they would leave the corn and go to the pumpkins. This 

 has been a good fall to keep pumpkins, and a nice time to feed them. I know that 

 hogs are able to digest and assimilate food when you give some pumpkins. I have 

 also given apples with good results. I want to give my brood sows some sugar- 

 beets, apples or potatoes. I know nothing about hog cholera, and think as long as 

 I am careful to feed on raw potatoes and beets, this time of year, we will have no 

 trouble with the cholera. Vegetables of this kind are a change from dry corn, and 

 a good tonic for toning up the appetite. A year ago I used a great many pota- 

 toes in that way. Our common purple strap-leaf turnip is also good. 



Mr. Thomas. Three or four years ago one of the most successful hog raisers I 

 know of told me that he had an entire crop of hogs destroyed with the cholera. He 

 took notice that the cholera took his hogs when he had no pumpkins. I was at the 

 Chicago Fat Stock Show last fall. An old breeder there told me that there was 

 nothing better to expel worms from hogs than pumpkins. 



On motion of Mr. Kobe, the following committee was appointed on programme: 

 Messrs. Barker, Reveal and Cooper. 



Convention adjourned until 7 o'clock p. M. 



