Popular Science Monthly 



511 



Making Hogs Grind Their Own 

 Grain Food 



A MACHINE which keeps hogs from 

 squeaHng, teaches them better table 

 or rather trough manners, and actually 

 turns their rooting propensities to account 

 in grinding their own feed, is a product of 

 the inventive genius 



of a Minnesota farm- 

 er. While the inven- 

 tor does not claim 

 that his device will 

 muffle the sounds 

 from a pen absolute- 

 ly he has proved that 

 the "hog motor" is 

 of value in econom- 

 ically feeding hogs 

 and preventing the 

 waste of grain in- 

 evitable with the 

 hand or trough me- 

 thod of feeding ordir.a'^ily employed. 

 The hog motor is similar in appearance 

 to a small water-driven turbine. It con- 

 sists of a reservoir of galvanized iron fitted 

 with a conical weatherproof top into which 

 the grain is poured. The grain 

 drops out at the bottom and is 

 automatically fed into a set of 

 grinding burrs 



attached to a mov- 

 able set of wooden 

 blades, the whole 

 being mounted on 

 delicately adjusted 

 ball bearings. The 

 snout of one pig 

 pushing against the 

 blades is sufficient 

 to set the machine 

 in motion, and as 

 the grain is ground 

 it drops in front of 

 the pig's snout. In 

 endeavoring to eat 

 up the feed the hog 

 gradually pushes the 

 blades around and 

 more grain is dis- 

 pensed. In this way 

 the machine oper- 

 ates continuously, 

 "he speed being 



>verned by the 

 agility, appetite and 

 snout activity of the 

 pigs. 



From the descrip- 



One pig pushing against the blades ii ^ :: - 

 cient to start the machine grinding the grain 



tion it might be inferred that the hogs 

 require educating to feed themselves with 

 the device, but it is only necessar^^ to 

 sprinkle a few grains of feed in front of the 

 blades and the animals will soon learn how 

 to work it. One of the main features in 

 favor of the device is that it allows the 

 economical feeding 

 of damaged grain 

 which it would not 

 pay to have ground. 

 The inventor claims 

 that a fairer distri- 

 bution of the feed is 

 possible with the 

 motor than without 

 it; for each hog 

 gets only what he 

 works for, and no 

 hog interferes with 

 another. 



Photo by E. Bade 



The fight to the death between the strangling 

 fig and the practically defenceless palm tree 



The Strangling Fig — A Terror of the 

 Vegetable Kingdom 



PLANTS can be as cruel as animals, 

 judged by merely human standards. 

 Just as there are dastardly and cowardly 

 birds and fishes so are there 

 murderous plants. That, briefly, 

 is the way in which 

 the strangling fig is 

 regarded. The 

 illustration shows 

 this relentless pest 

 strangling a palm 

 tree, around which 

 it is drawing its 

 sinews tighter and 

 tighter. It is not a 

 parasite; it obtains 

 its sustenance 

 through its o'wn 

 roots. 



This enables it to 

 grow rapidly, de- 

 stroying its victim 

 inch by inch, until 

 there is no visible 

 sign of the original 

 tree at all. The 

 strangling fig 

 belongs to the same 

 genus as the com- 

 mon fig tree. It grows 

 in the most tropical 

 part of Florida and 

 in portions of the 

 torrid zone. 



