heavy-shouldered animals are not countenanced in other classes of live stock, and 

 there seems to be no reason for using hogs of this type. A broad face with well- 

 muscled jaws, without flabbiness, indicate feeding qualities. Allowing for difference 

 of sex, the features desirable in the sow apply to the boar. Animals must show 

 vitality and activity, and a ruptured hog should not be used for breeding. 



SUMMER CARE OF SWINE PASTURING. 



Breeding stock should have as natural conditions as possible. Where pasture is 

 available, it will pay to graze hogs as well as other stock. The ordinary grasses, 

 however, are not satisfactory, as they will barely support the hog. Rape, kale, and 

 the legumes, such as clover, alfalfa, vetch, and peas, give much better results, being 

 more nutritious. They more than sustain the animal, so that the grain feed all goes 

 to make increase in weight. This is the most economical basis for feeding hogs. 

 It has been proved many times that not only are the cheapest gains made on pasture, 

 but that hogs raised on pasture and afterwards pen-fattened make better gains than 

 those raised without green feed. 



Where pasturing is not possible, crops should be cut green and fed in the pens. 

 At the same time, sufficient exercise should be enforced to keep stock healthy. Even 

 when on pasture, a breeding sow getting too ample a grain ration will get too fat 

 and lazy and have weak litters. 



As a supplement to pasture or green feed, one-third of the grain ration should 

 consist of muscle-building foods like wheat middlings, bran, oats, skim-milk or butter- 

 milk, and the rest of more fattening foods, such as corn-meal or barley-meal. 



Hog-growers differ as to the amount of grain to be fed on pasture. Some feed 

 a full ration; i.e., all the grain the hog will eat, about 4 or 5 per cent, of the live 

 weight of the animal per day. Others feed a half-ration, between 2 and 3 per cent. ; 

 while others prefer a light ration, one that is equal to only 1 per cent, of the live 

 weight of the hog. Occasionally men are found who run young hogs on pasture 

 without other feed. They make a big mistake, because invariably the animal will 



Yearling Berkshire Boar. 



be stunted. A young, growing animal requires some concentrated food. The quantity 

 of grain to be fed must be left to the individual feeder, and will depend upon (1) 

 the age at which the hogs are to be marketed ; (2) the price of grain ; (3) the amount 

 and quality of pasture available. 



If hogs are to be marketed when six to eight months old, they should get about 

 all the grain they will eat, as well as pasture to make them reach the desired weights, 



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