THE POOR MAN'S PIG. 115 



receive the broken bits of human food get a good deal 

 of salt in that way. Mixed salt and charcoal is some- 

 times a useful condiment or appetizer, especially where 

 the hog's ration has not been perfectly balanced, and 

 where by reason of restricted quarters it cannot 

 search for food adapted to its cravings. Ground bone 

 and dried blood are sometimes of great use as side 

 dishes (not in the trough) to afford needed nitrogen 

 and phosphoric acid ; in other words, to supply mus- 

 cle and bone-forming materials where the diet has 

 been too largely of corn or other carbonaceous food. 

 Offal meat of any kind has no right place in the pig 

 pen, and is distinctly liable to cause disease. Such 

 meat, including entrails of butchered animals, dead 

 chickens and rats, should always be buried or com- 

 posted. The soil is the true place for them, for they 

 contain much fertilizing value. 



When pigs which are kept alone, under good 

 treatment, fail to make rapid growth it is because of 

 improper nutrition, and the swill should be supple- 

 mented either with wheat middlings, or whatever 

 nitrogenous food may be cheapest. A very small 

 amount of cottonseed meal, a few ounces only per 

 week, may be given to a pig which has not sufficient 

 nitrogenous food to make rapid growth ; but wheat 

 middlings would perhaps be better. 



When it comes to finishing the home-raised 

 porker, and making ready for the block, we have 

 nothing in America superior to corn ; and corn should 

 be fed freely for several weeks before killing. Indeed, 

 if the swill diet can be wholly replaced for a month be- 

 fore slaughtering time by a diet of corn, it will do 



