52 CQNKEY'S STOCK BOOK 



conditioner. With little trouble and a cost of less than 2 l / 2 c a pound 

 you can make your own mixture: 



90 Ibs. barrel salt. 



10 Ibs. Conkey's Stock Vigor. 



Mix thoroughly and keep in a dry place, but where the sheep can help 

 themselves anytime. You can estimate 1 pound of this mixture for every 

 sheep for a period of 10 to 12 weeks. It will correct ordinary digestive 

 troubles, and act as a worm destroyer and preventive of many internal 

 parasites. It will actually ward off disease. Sheep need salt. Try this easy 

 and inexpensive Conkey way of salting them, and see how it cuts down 

 losses and improves your flock. 



5. Feeding Swine 



EARLY GAINS Swine are no exception to the rule already stated, that 



grain fed early brings the biggest proportion of profit. 

 At the Wisconsin station experiments with 18 pigs of good feeding 

 powers, on a ration of wheat middlings 1 part, ground corn 2 parts (salt 

 and woodash in addition, of course), during a test of 12 weeks, the biggest 

 and cheapest gains were made early. Gains made in the last four weeks 

 of this test cost fully one-third more than gains of the first four weeks 

 of the period. 



WHAT MAKES Wheat is in the first rank for feeding pigs. It tends to 

 FIRM BACON? a firm product and plenty of lean meat. But wheat is 

 expensive, except in wheat growing sections, although it 

 is proved that frosted wheat is just as effective as the first quality. Barley 

 also ranks high for feeding for bacon, with oats and peas next in order. 

 Under ideal conditions barley, peas and pats, with pasteurized dairy 

 products, some corn, especially at the finishing period, make up the best 

 feeding standard. 



Firm bacon is the product of such feeds as barley, blood meal, bran, 

 clover hay, wheat, oats, oatmeal, rye, shorts, turnips, distillers' grain, 

 tankage, skim-milk, whole milk and whey. Skim-milk and whey, fed 

 always with grains such as corn, make a solid firm product. Exercise also 

 helps to make this firmness. 



CORN THE Pigs fairly well fed and given good care up to 100 Ibs. 

 FINISHER can then be quickly finished off into fine bacon with a 

 mixture of various meals. Corn is above all the "finisher." 

 Corn as a feed is good at any time, and always relished by the porkers; 

 but whenever it makes up more than one-half the feed stuff it tends to 

 less firmness of flesh and too much fat shoulder. Soft pork in general 

 is produced by such feeds as buckwheat, table refuse, corn and gluten 

 feeds, while skim-milk added to these corrects this tendency. But corn 

 is especially good in cold seasons. 



THE GROWING For instance, in summer a good combination for 

 STOCK growing stock would be clover, bran, shorts, possibly 



some oil-meal, supplemented later by succulent pump- 

 kin and squash for the brood sow after her pigs are weaned. Then as the 

 cooler season approaches corn can be added and used more and more 

 liberally, finishing, rounding, supplying necessary body-heat, so that the 

 pigs can make the best growth out of the good conditions provided. Young 



