FEEDING. 183 



state ; they are cither roasted in an oven or macerated in boiling 

 water. The same reason may be given here as will apply to all 

 kinds of roots and fruits, not only when used as food for swine, but 

 also for other animals, and even for the human being ; they are 

 rendered more digestible by cooking, divested of their crudeness, 

 and thus better calculated to nourish the system without fatiguing 

 or disordering its powers. Besides which there is a decided saving 

 effected. Some even go so far as to calculate that cooked, or 

 ground, or bruised food, goes as far again as that which is given in 

 its natural state or merely cut up. 



In America, where there is an abundance of apples and pump- 

 kins, these fruits are given to swine : we quote an account related 

 by a great breeder of these animals, who attaches much value to 

 these two articles of food, which seems to testify their utility : 



" On the 10th of October twenty swine were put up to fatten, all 

 of which were only in middling store order, in consequence of 

 the scarcity of feed. The cows producing very little wash from the 

 dairy, and the crop of apples being scanty this season, nothing had 

 been given them during summer but a small orchard containing 

 one acre and a-half of land (with the premature apples which fell,) 

 in which was a pond of water, a very essential requisite to hogs, and 

 one to which, under the powerful influence of the sun, they will re- 

 sort for their chief comfort. 



" The above twenty swine were divided into three lots and closely 

 confined ; we proceeded to fatten them by steaming 4 bushels of 

 small potatoes, 12 bushels of apple pomace, 4 bushels of pumpkins, 

 and 1 cwt. of buckwheat cornel, adding a little salt, the whole being 

 well incorporated together while hot from the steamer, with a 

 wooden pounder, and suffered to undergo fermentation before it was 

 ased as food : they were at the same time supplied with plenty of 

 'jharcoal and pure water. While feeding them with the first steamer 

 of the compound, a more than ordinary moisture was observed on 

 their litter, which was occasioned by urine : a knowledge of animal 

 nature convinced the owner that any more than an ordinary flow 

 would weaken the system, and retard the progress of fattening ; and 

 ne attributed this evil to the steamed pumpkins acting as a diu- 

 retic, stimulating the kidneys and increasing the evacuation of urine. 

 In the next steamer, therefore, 4 bushels of ruta-baga were substi- 

 tuted for the pumpkins, which had the desired effect. This expe- 

 riment afforded proof that a mixture thus compounded contains a 

 large mass of nutritive material ready prepared for the action of 

 the stomach, and therefore producing flesh more rapidly than any 

 other combination of food made use of. All the waste apples 

 being used up, and there being a greater quantity of soft corn on 

 hand than usual, that was given to the hogs, but instead of their 

 condition improving they fell off, and the owner was under th 



